Time For A Change in Plumland!
by StarryBabe
Summary: Lions,Tigers & Stuffed Bears, originally  Stephanie Plum is at it again. Hot men one in particular  are in her life and a crazy stalker once again!    *DISCLAIMER*Most of the materials from this story are thanks to Janet Evanovich! She is freakin' awesome
1. Lions, Tigers and Stuffed Bears

A puddle of almost-neon green sludge was pooling at my feet and smelling up the office as I stood in front of Connie's desk in my cousin Vinnie's newly constructed bonds office, waiting for my body receipt. My last apprehension, Morton Salzner, had creamed me with the sludge before I tackled and cuffed him. Throwing the bucket of sludge on me was his worst mistake. He just added fuel to the flame that I already had to get my rent paid on time this month. I had no idea where the sludge came from. The sludge was from parts unknown. It had been a bucket of mystery sitting in a big paint bucket in the corner of his dingy, sparsely furnished apartment.

Connie was looking uncomfortable, holding her nose between two perfectly manicured fingers and typing faster than I've ever seen her type before with her other hand. Lula was opening a window, trying to let the smell out. The window stuck when it was almost all the way up and she fell halfway out, doing a good Pooh in the honey pot imitation. I heard her suck in the fresh air and sigh in relief.

"I ain't never smelled nothing like that!" Lula said and she farted. For some reason I had a hard time believing that.

The front door of the office dinged open and the pressure in the room changed. I didn't have to turn to know it was Ranger. I would recognize his electric energy anywhere. Still, I turned to see his reaction to gooey Stephanie and was not surprised to see that Ranger-esque almost-smile that sent a thrill from my head straight to my southern lands, which was currently no-man's-land. He picked a strand of my hair up between two fingers, examined it for a nano-second and did a Ranger grimace. In other words, I think I saw a tiny twitch of his nose.

"Babe," was all he said. The tone of his voice said, "What in the world did you do now?"

"It's complicated," I said by way of explanation. I didn't want to even think of today's events much less talk about them!

Lula must have thought seeing Ranger was worth putting up with the stench, because she worked the top half of herself back into the office. She pulled her neon pink leopard print mini skirt back down to slightly covering proportions and straightened up her girls. They still hung almost halfway out of her glittery black low v-neck tank top. I noticed her hair was golden blond today with little strips of pink in the front on each side.

"We need to get you cleaned up," Ranger said to me, looking at me like I was lunch. Behind him I could see Connie and Lula fanning themselves.

"I'm good, but thanks for the offer. Maybe next time." I teased him.

Ranger smoldered down at me for a flash and said, "I'll remember that."

Oh boy. A second surge of heat travelled to no-man's-land. "Well, time to go." I said as Connie handed me my check. I rushed through the door like a gazelle running from a lion. Which is actually very close to reality. Ranger was the elusive bad boy gone good, depending on who's standards you used to measure "good". We had had a few mind-numbingly shattering nights of something that was too good to be defined and we still remained friends and associates. The chemistry was always there, waiting to flare up at the first sign of lost control. He has already made it clear that he is not marriage material, but that he loves me in his own way and he would take advantage of every opportunity to get me naked in his bed. And I have already made it clear to myself that I am crazy because, despite the warning, I was totally in love with him.

Then there was Morelli. I was also in love with him. He might be willing to marry me if I lose the bounty hunter job and take the job as his housewife. As much as I liked being with him, I just couldn't picture myself as anyone's housewife. Besides, I might not make a killing at this job, but I definitely have a love-hate relationship with it. I don't really want to quit, even if I do question my sanity at my decision more often than not. So that left me in my current condition. Man-less and close to penniless because once I cashed that check, it was as good as gone to rent, bills, a few jars of peanut butter, a jar of olives and some bread.

I pulled into the lot of my building, a simple three story red brick apartment building. I parked my maroon '06 convertible Eclipse and I remoted the car doors locked. I power-walked into the lobby, up two flights of stairs and into my apartment. No time to waste, I could feel my skin rotting away under the green sludge. Okay, so maybe it wasn't rotting, but who am I to say what this stuff could do to me? For all I knew I might have already been growing an extra set of eyes on my ass!

I ran straight to the shower and jumped in with clothes on. I didn't want to touch the sludge any more than I already had. After I stripped the wet clothes off I soaped and lathered three times and prayed that the gunk would come out of my hair. I felt a little guilty about praying, considering the fact that I hadn't so much as entered a church since the time Lula made me fill her Super Soaker with holy water. And I couldn't even remember how long it had been before that. I crossed myself and hoped that would compensate a little.

After toweling off and dressing in a pair of dark blue jeans and a gray Pearl Jam tee, I strolled into the kitchen and stopped in my tracks. There was a decapitated, two-foot, stuffed bear in the middle of the floor. No note pinned to it, no writing in blood on the wall. The batting was sticking out of its neck, like a still life of white, gushing blood. "Okay, Stephanie, stay calm," I said to myself. "It's just a stuffed animal." A decapitated stuffed animal in the middle of _my_ kitchen. I needed a doughnut. Or birthday cake. Yes, birthday cake would be perfect!

I knew I should call someone and report this, but I _really_ wanted some birthday cake first. Some people hit the bottle, some people smoke a cigarette. I eat sweets when I'm having a nervous breakdown. I stuck my head in the fridge and didn't find any birthday cake, but I did find some leftover pineapple upside down cake from my mom's last night. I scarfed it down, keeping an eye on my headless prize. When I finished I washed my plate and dialed Morelli.

"What's up?" he answered.

"Um, I've got a decapitated plush in my kitchen." I told him, feeling a little silly.

"What did the stuffed animal do to you to deserve that?" he asked with a small laugh.

"This is serious!" I yelled into the phone. "I didn't call you to get laughed at. You know, I could've called someone else first."

"Sorry, Cupcake. I'm busy right now, but I'll send someone over." and he disconnected. While I waited I called Ranger and told him. He said he'd be right over since he was already close by and disconnected.

Five minutes later Eddie Gazarra showed up with a new partner that I didn't recognize. He introduced him as Clarence Gordon. Ranger showed up right after Gazarra had asked me a few questions. Gordon examined my door and windows, checking for signs of forced entry and Gazarra scoped out the bear. Ranger strutted over, put his arm around me and kissed the top of my head.

"Any ideas on the culprit?" he asked, looking at the bear with one of those Ranger smiles.

"Not a clue. I haven't pissed anyone off any more than normal." For me, though, pissing people off was part of my profession.

Gordon ambled over. "No signs of forced entry." Gazarra joined him. "Just make sure you keep everything, doors and windows, locked up." Gordon said.

"Take care of yourself, Steph." Gazarra said with a punch in the shoulder, and they walked out with my headless friend, closing the door behind them.

"Good riddance to that thing," I mumbled.

I looked up at Ranger. "So, what's on the agenda for today?"

"Actually, I don't really have one. I thought I'd take a hike." I wasn't sure if he meant literally or figuratively. It must have shown on my face because then he said, "Babe, I mean I'm going to the Poconos on an all-day hiking excursion. You should come with me."

I thought about it and before I could reach a decision, Ranger was pulling me by my arm through the door. "Wait! I don't have my purse!" I dug my feet into the carpet.

"You don't need it."

"I don't have any snacks ready!" I said, feeling panicky. I love spending time with Ranger, but hiking with Batman was just plain scary. Especially since the last time I did exercise was when I ran down the street to the gas station to get an emergency candy bar.

"I have water, fruit and nuts. That's all we need for the hike and we'll go out for dinner after." he said, still pulling me towards the door.

"But I don't have my deodorant on!" That stopped him short. He released my arm and watched me go into the bathroom with skeptical eyes. I procrastinated by putting on some makeup and brushing my teeth again. I was about to start on my eyebrows when Ranger knocked on the door.

"I'll go ahead without you if you're not out in thirty seconds." he said through the door.

"Tempting." I said.

Well, I_ could_ use the exercise after all that cake I just ate. And I could get to know Ranger more, which would help me with my dilemma. Not that I needed help with that when he obviously didn't want a commitment. Still, it felt like I should do some further investigation. Plus, did I really want to be here all alone in my apartment when some crazed stalker was sending me beheaded treats? I slathered about half a tube of deodorant under each arm as fast as I could and thought about hiking with Ranger again. Probably it wouldn't be so bad. I heard the Pocono Mountains were really pretty this time of year. That's a plus, right?

I opened the bathroom door and found Ranger turning the front door knob. He turned back to me when he heard me coming toward him and grabbed my hand to lead me out of my apartment to his black Porsche Panamera Turbo. We piled in and hit the highway. It was a little over a two hour drive and Ranger was in his usual silent mode. I, on the other hand, was feeling a little more peppy.

"So how often do you go hiking?" I asked him.

"Every chance I get, which isn't very often. The outdoors are good for you, Babe."

I pushed that thought around. Probably he was right. But the great outdoors didn't seem to like me much. I mean, I usually end up getting attacked by wildlife. And the only times I wasn't attacked by wildlife in the outdoors, I wasn't exactly there for great reasons. So today would be an adventure. Just hopefully, they don't have any bears or anything.

"Ugh, that would be horrible!" I said without thinking. Ranger looked at me, one eyebrow slightly raised.

"Uh, I was just worrying about the lions and tigers and bears. Oh my!" I giggled nervously. Mental head slap. God, I am such a dork!

Ranger half smiled and grabbed the hand that was resting on my leg. Heat surged through my body when his hand brushed my leg and for a second I debated convincing him to pull into the next abandoned road and letting me have my way with him. I didn't think it wouldn't take much convincing. But it was also probably asking for trouble. I sighed.

"Babe." Ranger said, his voice laced with sexy. He must have read my mind. Either that or he knows me well enough to translate that sigh. His eyes were smoldering down at me. He looked back to the road, but his hand looked for forbidden pleasures as he drove. It caressed my left breast, went up and down my side a couple times, sending chills through my entire body and finally it rested on my leg again where he took my hand back in his. A small moan escaped before I could stop it.

"Maybe we should turn around and go back to my place," he said.

_Eeek!_ I thought. That was so tempting. "No, I'm good with hiking." I squeaked.

It was almost noon when we arrived. The weather was typical for the end of May, except it was about five degrees cooler here. The rain had been good this year so the foliage was extra green and the forest smelled of damp earth and damp trees. Not entirely a bad smell. Very masculine. _Mmmm...masculine_. I thought as I watched Ranger stretching in front of me. His body was rock solid and perfectly shaped all over, and I do mean all. He was as masculine as you can get. I imagined sinking my teeth into that perfect ass and had a little convulsion of pleasure run through me at the thought. I peeled my eyes off of him and spotted the black backpack laying on the back floorboard. I rifled through it. Unsalted almonds, dried mixed berries, several bottles of water and four homemade granola bars. I'm guessing those came from Ella.

"What? No Tasty Kakes?" I teased.

"Those things'll kill you, Babe." he said and he put the backpack on.

We walked around curving trails that inclined and declined and inclined again. I was proud that I wasn't about to throw up, but I was huffing and puffing and my legs were already starting to hurt. Ranger didn't even have a drop of sweat on him. Ugh, how annoying is that? We rounded another curve and landed right in front of a huge cascade.

"Whoa." I stopped and stared, checking it out from top to bottom. A light mist sprayed on me from the fall as we walked across the wooden pedestrian bridge. It crossed over the water that pooled on an overhang which created a break in the waterfall. It looked like we were right in the middle of the deluge. My peace of mind was broken when I heard a rare full-on Ranger laugh.

"I don't know how you do it, Babe." he said when I turned on him with a glare. He picked up a strand of my hair much like he did this morning, between pinched fingers. He held it out so I could see part of it. I could barely see a little white smudge in it.

"Oh my god! What is that?"

"Looks like the birds around here already know the drill." he said, sounding a little too amused for my liking.

I looked up to the sky, "Why me?" I asked, then realized how much I sound like my mother. 

I ran to the visitor's center and assessed the damage in the mirror. The bird poo started at the top of my head and ran down one side almost to the end of my hair. Alright, okay. I've had way worse than this. All I had to do was figure out how to get my head under the faucet. Five minutes and a wet head later I was poo free. I walked back to Ranger and we dug in to the snacks. I'm not a big health nut, but I have to admit, Ella makes a mean granola bar.

I was scarfing the last bite of my second granola bar, watching the water ripple down the cliff face. It really was peaceful.

"I could get used to doing things like this," I said. Ranger just stared down at me, his expression unreadable. He tucked some stray hairs behind my ear and kissed me lightly on the mouth. Now it was my turn to gawk. I wasn't sure what it meant. He's kissed me before, and his kisses were always good. This kiss was sweet and tender. I could really get used to this side of Ranger, too, but I wasn't about to tell him that. _Okay, let's not make too much of this_.

Two hours later my legs felt about as sturdy as Jell-O and were burning so bad that I wasn't sure if I could make it back to the car. I trudged through the small parking lot and collapsed in the Turbo. We hit the highway in search of dinner now. It could get complicated. He was a health nut and I was a junk food addict. We debated a lot. He wanted Sushi, I wanted a doughnut. Eventually we compromised and decided on a steak house. Ranger ordered a top sirloin steak and the vegetable medley and I ordered a loaded baked potato and a double bacon cheeseburger with extra bacon and cheese. I was so full that I had to sneak to undo the top button on my jeans. Once we were back in the car and on the road, I was asleep within minutes.

* * *

><p>When I woke up again I was in my tee shirt and panties and had a big, warm arm wrapped around me. I felt my way up the arm and found that the big, warm arm also had a warm, bare chest. I checked a little lower and felt an elastic band. <em>Whew! <em>Saved by the flimsy stretch of fabric! I had to stop myself from thinking too much about the fact that Ranger was laying in my bed, half naked, snuggling up to me. If I thought about it too much I would probably give him a very, very happy start to his day. I hefted the arm off me so I could check the time on my phone. Six am! I had slept through the night!

I crawled out of bed on achy legs and started the coffee. Ranger must have smelled it brewing because he joined me in the kitchen a few minutes later. He looked at the top of my head and smiled.

"Babe."

I rolled my eyes up as if I could see the top of my head. I didn't see anything so I took a stroll to the bathroom to look in the mirror. Sure enough, I was doing my best impersonation of Medusa. I probably still smelled from all that walking we did yesterday, too. I jumped in the shower and realized when I was done that the laundry basket with my clean clothes in it was still sitting on the living room floor by the couch. I put my short, worn-from-the-years, pink robe on and heard some strange noises coming from the kitchen when I walked out of the bathroom. Was someone cooking in my kitchen?

I went to investigate and found Ranger whisking eggs. He was dressed in only his silky, black boxer briefs that perfectly accentuated his most perfect parts. I felt my nipples go hard as I watched him work. His sex radar must have sounded because he turned to me with eyes dilated black and put the egg bowl down on the counter. He reached over to turn the warming burner back off.

"Breakfast can wait." he said and started coming towards me. _Gulp_!


	2. The GreenEyed Monster Emerges

Ranger walked over to me and kissed me with enough passion to blow my brick building down. Our tongues touched and a swell of heat rushed through my entire body. His hand slipped under my shirt and cupped my swollen breast. I moaned and that was all the signal he needed to back me up to the bedroom Our kisses deepened to the point that I thought we might consume each other whole.

His hands brushed over the entire top half of my body as he took my robe off and his underwear somehow mysteriously disappeared. He laid me down on the bed and climbed on top to kiss me, first on the mouth, then on the jaw, between my breasts, my stomach, below my belly button and..._Oh boy!_

Right when I was about to have the mother of all climaxes he lifted himself up and filled me with his perfect package. After an unsurmisable amount of time, we both exploded in something that could not even begin to be sufficiently described as an orgasm. There were no words that could do it justice. He laid next to me for a few minutes, holding me in one arm and using his other to run his hand soft-as-a-feather up and down my side, giving me chills. It felt so nice that, after about five minutes of that, I jumped up to climb over him and straddled him. A little while later we exploded again and slipped off to dream-land wrapped up in each other.

* * *

><p>We were awakened by the sound of a phone buzzing. Ranger reached over me to grab his phone off the nightstand.<p>

"Speak," Ranger said into his phone. He listened for a minute, disconnected, heaved himself off of the bed and set out in search of his clothes.

"I have to go over to Rangeman for an interview. I'd like you to come with me and give me a woman's opinion." he said.

_Okay_...I thought. He'd never wanted my opinion before on a new hire, but what the heck. This should be interesting. I took a quick shower and threw myself into my Rangeman attire; a tight black tee with Rangeman embroidered on the front, black cargo pants and black, low-heel boots.

We arrived at the Rangeman building and fobbed ourselves up to the fifth floor office. After 10 minutes, Lester stuck his head in to announce that the interviewee had arrived and Ranger told him to send her in. Wait. _Her?_ He was hiring a _woman_?

I didn't have another chance to think about it because just then a gorgeous Latina woman walked through the door and introduced herself as Lucena Reyes, Lucy for short. She was about two inches taller than me, 15 pounds thinner and a full cup size bigger. She was dressed in black from head to toe, but still looked professional in her black silk blouse with an over-sized collar and black slacks that fit her perfectly over her backside. The top buttons of her blouse couldn't contain her girls, so they were undone and a black lace camisole peeked out from underneath. Her hair was a silky, chestnut brown and styled in a sleek French twist with a few spiral tendrils hanging loose around her face. Her eyes were the same chocolate brown as Ranger's and her cheekbones reminded me of a Greek goddess.

I couldn't even focus on the interview because I was too busy worrying about how_ I_ could never measure up to _that_. I caught a few snippets. She had worked for the CIA and wanted to get back to her roots in Trenton. She had black belts in three different styles of martial arts and she graduated at the top of her class at Columbia University. _My god_! Who _is_ this girl?

When the interview finally closed about 30 minutes later, Ranger turned to me and asked, "So what do you think?"

"Umm, she seems, uh, okay, I guess."

Ranger's mouth twitched upward at the corners. "That's it?"

I just stared at him blankly.

"You're jealous, aren't you?" he asked, sounding way too entertained.

"I am not!" I yelled as if the idea were completely ludicrous.

He laughed a half laugh. "I'll call her and tell her she can start on Monday."

A flash of irrational anger stabbed through me. "Whatever you say, Bossman," I said with a sarcastic bite.

I worked to shut down the anger. _She's just another employee_, I thought. And anyway, its not like I have any claim on Ranger. He can do whatever he wants. I fought the angry surge again when I thought about him wanting another woman. I was afraid that if I didn't get out of the office right away I'd do something I'd regret. So I walked out of the office and closed the door a tad too hard. I pouted with my arms across my chest all the way to the kitchen. There was no cake or donuts to calm me, so I grabbed the first thing I found.

An apple. Okay, I can make-do with an apple. In fact, maybe I'd go on an all-fruit diet. Then, after I lose 20 pounds maybe I'll get my boobs done, what with all the money I'd save on not buying other kinds of food. Then we'll see who looks better. "Ungh!" I said and I smacked myself on the head with the heel of my hand. What was wrong with me?

I turned to leave the kitchen and came face to face with Ranger. He was smirking now. "What was that about?" he asked me.

"Oh, that? I uh," think Stephanie, think! "I, uh, forgot to wash my apple." I said.

"The sink is the other way." He pointed toward the back of the kitchen. Now the smirk was a full-fledged smile. Entertaining Ranger at my own expense was starting to get old.

"Right," I said and marched over to the sink. I turned on the water and half-ass washed my apple. I looked over my shoulder at him and a nervous giggle escaped my lips. I shut the water off and scurried past Ranger, out of the kitchen to the elevators and down to the garage when it finally hit me that I rode in with Ranger. _Shit!_

I had no car! Okay, I couldn't go back up there after that. I called Lula and told her where I was. "Can you come get me?"

"Whatcha doin' at Rangeman without a car?" she asked.

"Its complicated." I said.

"OH MY GOD!" she yelled through the phone. "You been boinkin' Batman again! I'll be right there! I want all the details!" and she disconnected. Great.

* * *

><p>I waited for Lula outside of Rangeman since she didn't have a fob to get into the secure garage. Just my luck, it started to rain. I stayed close to the overhang until I saw her Firebird motoring toward me. I stepped out just in time for a gray cargo van to slush muddy, oily street water all over me. Lula pulled up to the curb seconds later and examined me from the driver's side.<p>

"Un-unh. You ain't gonna dirty up my baby's seats like that. I think I got a blanket back here." I didn't even want to ask why she had a blanket in her car. She covered the passenger seat for me and I stepped in, glad to be somewhere dry.

"So, what's up?" Lula asked me. "I musta' been wrong about you and Batboy. I mean, I know if I was doin' that fine piece of ass I'd be glowin and smilin and shit."

I arched my eyebrow at her. No way was I talking to her about this.

"Nu-uh. I came all the way over here to get your skinny white ass so I could get some juicy details. If you're not doing Ranger, then you better tell me why you got your panties in a bunch."

"I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you." I pulled out an old Ranger line.

"No way would I let your scrawny ass do that. 'Sides, I'd get you first. I could kill your ass off."

That got a smile out of me. I could just imagine me and Lula as two of the three stooges, slapping each other on the head and poking each other's eyes. Okay, maybe I should talk to her and see what she thinks.

"It's just that Ranger is hiring some sex goddess at Rangeman and..." Lula cut me off.

"I knew it! You been messing with him and now some ho-ass bitch come along and tryin to snag your man! What's the bitches name? Where does she live? I'll go bust a cap up her ass right now!" Lula swerved onto the sidewalk in her excitement and pedestrians scattered like roaches when a light goes on. I took a moment to let my heart climb back out of my stomach.

"We are _not_ busting any caps up anyone's ass." I told her.

"Huh." she said. "I know what you need. You need to get you some sexy lingerie, make you feel like a woman," and she belted out, "You make me feel, you make me feel like a natural woman!"

"Okay! I'll go shopping with you! Just stop singing!" I said.

"Huh. I could sing the shit outta that song. Only I won't on account a all that singing's makin me real thirsty."

I had Lula take me back to my apartment first so I could change out of my clothes that made me look like I crawled through a pig pen. I came out dressed in a blue, green and white striped Old Navy tank top and blue jeans with blue flip flops. I spruced my hair up a little, applied some extra mascara and I was good to go.

We pulled into the mall parking lot a little while later and stopped in at the food court so Lula could get a Mega Wet soda. I resisted the gravitational pull of the 64 ounce fountain soda and got a liter of water instead. We took off toward Victoria's Secret and I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw Morelli looking at cell phone covers at one of the little mall kiosks.

I was suddenly overcome with an absurd guilt. Why should I feel guilty when the last time I shared a bed with Morelli was back when his crazy Grandma Bella had put the vordo on me? We'd been off since then and I hadn't hosted any more sleepovers with him since I'd shared a bed with Ranger. When Grandma Bella had taken the vordo off, I was off sex completely until earlier today. At first I had thought maybe Grandma Bella had taken off too much when she removed the spell, but now that I think about it, maybe my girl parts just needed a rest from the action. I mean, that was _a lot_ of sex!

I walked up behind Morelli and tapped him on the shoulder. "Cupcake!" His eyes got brighter when he saw me. He reached for me, pulled me to him and kissed my temple. "How's it goin'?"

"Fine." I didn't know what else to say. "You?"

"Major case load right now. Things are crazy." He sighed. Then I saw the tall blond saunter over to Morelli's other side.

"Honey, you're going to ruin our cover," Terry Gillman said, just loud enough for me to hear. About three quarters of her cleavage was showing in a deep-V cut designer shirt, and the girls were pointing into Morelli. Her lips practically brushed his ear when she spoke to him and then she looked over at me with a look I can only describe as cocky.

For the second time today I felt anger surge through me because of another woman. This time, though, I was being provoked and Morelli wasn't doing anything about it! I didn't have to put up with this! I spun on my heel and stalked off toward Victoria's Secret, not bothering to see if Lula was close behind. I walked into the store and started pulling random bras and panties in my size off the racks and slammed them down on the counter. No matter that I had a week's supply of underwear there. I put it on my credit card that I had just finally managed to pay down a little and drummed my fingers on the counter while I waited for the cashier to bag them up. Lula came up behind me, a little breathless.

"What was that? I thought you were upset about Ranger. Now you're upset about Morelli, too?" she asked me.

"Ya, I know. I'm messed up. I'm confused and irritated." I said in a huff and swiped my bag off the counter. I didn't want to risk running into Morelli with Terry again, so we cut through Macy's and came out on the other side of the mall. I power-walked to the Firebird and Lula was stumbling, trying to keep up. When we finally got in the car, Lula sounded like she had run a marathon.

"Girl, we gotta find you a new man." She said between breaths and started the car.

"No, I gotta find a new life! Maybe I'll move to California. I hear the weather's nice in San Diego." Of course, I wouldn't do it. My family and friends were here. I grew up here. And besides that, Val had already gone the California route and she had ended up getting sucked back into the Trenton vortex in the end.

So, I had a situation to assess. Both of these women were about 15 pounds thinner and they both had better racks than me. Not much I could do about the rack part short of that surgery or stuffing my bra with Nerf balls. But I _could_ lose some weight. I told Lula to drop me off at my apartment. I knew what I had to do.

Thirty minutes later I was dressed in sweats and tennis shoes. I let myself out of my apartment, locked up behind me and took off at a dead sprint as soon as my feet hit the sidewalk. I ran three blocks and got a stitch in my side. I slowed to a jog, but the stitch wouldn't go away. I finally slowed to a walk and walked two more blocks before I gave up and walked back home.

I let myself back into my apartment, planning on vegging out in front of the TV, maybe watch Ghostbusters a couple times. I stepped into my apartment, closed the door and bolted it and turned the light on. I dropped my keys on my foyer table and turned around to come face to face with an overstuffed giraffe hanging by an old twine rope from the light fixture in my living room. My first irrational thought was to check to see if it was still alive. My second was that there was no one I could call because both my men were busy with their other women.

Well, okay, the giraffe wasn't real, so that took care of the first thought. As for the second thought, Morelli might be busy with his case, or whatever it was he was doing. Ranger might be able to come by, but I really didn't want to call him after freaking out this morning. I could just call it into the police station, but one of Ranger's men would hear the call go out on the radio and he'd wonder why I didn't call him. So I dialed Ranger first. When he said he was on his way, I hung up and called the police station.

Seven minutes later there was a knock on the door. I opened the door and let Ranger in. We both stood there for a moment and eyed the giraffe speculatively.  
>"Babe, you gotta stop pissing people off."<p>

"I know. It's my job!" There was another knock on the door and Carl Costanza came in with his partner, Big Dog.

"Another one?" Costanza asked, grinning at me.

I punched him in the shoulder. "It's not funny! This is getting creepy."

Costanza looked chastised and got serious. "You're right, Steph. We just try to make light of things so we don't lose our minds. It's what cops do."

They did some more of their cop thing, searching my apartment for evidence and checking all the doors and windows. Apparently they didn't find anything more than they had the first time. Ranger just stood next to me until they left my apartment with the stuffed giraffe.

"People are going to start thinking you're hosting a carnival in here." he said, smiling down at me.

I sighed and sat on the couch. "I don't know what to think about all this. I have no idea who could be doing it or why."

Ranger looked thoughtful for a minute. "So what were you doing when you discovered it?"

My face flushed red. "I was just out on a jog." I said, shrugging as if it were totally normal, like I jogged every day. I just hoped he wouldn't ask why I was jogging. Instead he smiled a full-on, eye-crinkling smile. Gee, even better. He already had it figured out.

"I'll take you out jogging next time," he said.

"Pass. I'm not ready to die yet."

"So what are you doing tonight? It doesn't seem like a good idea for you to stay here by yourself."

"I'll be fine. I want to be alone tonight," I said. "If it'll make you feel better, I'll put bullets in my gun."

"The gun with the bullets in it won't do you any good if its hiding out in the cookie jar." What can I say? He knew me well. "You could stay with me tonight," he said.

Even though his offer sent a thrill of anticipation through me, I politely declined. He kissed me on the top of my head and told me to call if I needed anything. I thanked him and shut the door behind him.

I dug through my refrigerator for something healthy to eat. I really wanted to lose 15 pounds. There were still some eggs from when Ranger was here, so I scrambled up an egg and ate it with a handful of grapes. I dropped a grape into Rex's cage and watched him run out of his soup can, scattering shavings in his rush. He stuffed the grape in his cheek pouch and returned just as quickly to his safe haven in the can.

"What am I supposed to do?" I asked him as if he would magically start speaking. I sighed, slumped onto the couch and powered the TV on. I had barely started watching the Tonight Show when my phone rang. I answered and heard breathing on the other end. After a moment, a distorted voice that sounded like it was being played back in slow motion came on.

"Stephanie." it said, followed by another couple seconds of hard breathing, and then the call was disconnected.

I looked at the caller ID, which said unknown number. I tried calling it back, just in case and, of course, I got the "Your call could not be completed as dialed" message. Okay, maybe I didn't want to stay here by myself. Whoever it was must have been watching me and knew that I was alone now. I went to the living room window and peeked out from behind the cover of the curtain to see if I could spot the culprit. There was no sign of life. I blew out a sigh.

I thought about staying at my parents' house, but it was too late to bother them. I could go to Rangeman, but I was still feeling a little proud after my little episode. I couldn't sleep at Lula's because I literally wouldn't be able to sleep. The girl snores lick a jackhammer. Okay, Rangeman it is then. I didn't worry about packing my clothes up because I still had some left over in Ranger's apartment.


	3. You Need What You Need

_The characters and general ideas for my story all belong to the great Miss Janet Evanovich!_

Please, if you enjoy what you read here, feel free to leave a comment. And if you think there is room for improvement, please elaborate. I am an aspiring author and every bit of constructive criticism and positive feedback will help!

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter3: You Need What You Need<strong>

I ran through the parking lot to my Eclipse. I might have just been paranoid, but it felt like someone was still watching me and I didn't want to take a chance. I hopped into the car and took off, peeling out in my hurry to vacate the premises. I sailed through town, ecstatic at the fortune of missing most of the red lights. I pulled into the Rangeman garage and fobbed myself to the seventh floor apartment.

It was dark when I arrived, so I felt my way along the hall to the entrance of the bedroom. I took my pants off, but left my undies and tee shirt on and crawled into bed next to Ranger.

"Babe." he said, his voice groggy with sleep. He threw his arm around me, pulled me to him, kissed my neck and drifted back off to dream land.

* * *

><p>When I woke up light was filtering in through the curtains. I smelled coffee in the distance so I climbed out of bed and let my nose lead me to the kitchen where a fresh pot of hot coffee sat gleaming at me from the coffee maker. Ranger was standing, drinking his own coffee. His hair was slick with water and I could smell his delicious Bvlgari Green shower gel from a mile away. <em>Mmmmm.<em>

"So what changed your mind?" he asked.

"I thought I'd be safer with the hungry lion." I joked. Geez, am I a dork. Ranger narrowed his eyes at me, obviously not feeling too playful.

"Okay, so the stalker called me after you left." I gave him all the gory details about the phone call.

"I'll send Tank to pick Rex up and bring him here. You can make a list of things you need from your apartment. You're staying here with me until we figure this out." he said.

I didn't argue because, for one, I was too freaked out to stay in my apartment. Too many scary things had happened there before when I've had stalkers. If I needed a place to stay when I was in trouble, I couldn't do much better than Ranger's apartment, which, between him, the Merry Men, all the alarms and cameras, was extremely secure. It was also very comfortable. I didn't feel like I was crammed into a holding cell here.

I wrote up a short list of things I needed from my apartment. Makeup, toothbrush and toothpaste, deodorant, my hair dryer and hairspray, socks and the bag from Victoria's Secret. I was glad I remembered about the bag of brand new underwear because the idea of Ranger's men going through my panties drawer and picking out my undies made me cringe.

"I have a couple meetings to go to this morning. I'll give the list to Tank on my way out. Will you be okay during the day?" he asked.

"Yup." I said. Really, I wasn't so sure. It didn't matter anyway. Ranger wouldn't put me on lock-down because he knew it rarely did any good. I always found my way out, even if it meant temporarily disabling some of my favorite co-workers.

Ranger took the list from me and planted a soft kiss on my lips before heading out. I immediately decided I wasn't going to sit cooped up like a coward all day, so I took a quick shower, savoring the scent of his scrumptious shower gel, feeling little butterflies float around my tummy knowing that I'd be able to continue to savor the scent for most of the day. I dressed in some of my leftover Rangeman clothes and set out to the bonds office.

* * *

><p>Connie was at her desk painting her nails aqua blue to match her marine colored blouse when I came in. Lula wasn't there yet.<p>

"Got any skips for me?" I asked. Connie looked up from her nails.

"Just one. Its been slow since we got rid of the bus with your picture on it." she searched around the federal disaster area on her desk for the file. Looks like Lula hasn't been doing much filing.

"Here it is." she said, triumphant. "Brody Gurstmyer. First offense for armed robbery." She handed me the file. I read the top sheet and paused.

"He robbed the library?" I said in disbelief. "What did he want? A stack of beat up paperbacks?"

"Turns out he just wanted the newspaper archives. He walked right into the back room and gathered up all the front pages he could find. Old Mrs. Wattles whacked him over the head with a baseball bat and he went down like a house of cards. Next thing he woke up in a jail cell." Connie explained with a shrug.

"Why didn't he just look at them on the library data base?" I asked, not believing someone could be so dumb.

"I guess he didn't have a library card." Okay, that makes a tiny bit more sense, I guess. The story was almost funny, but, honestly, something about it made me shiver from the inside out.

"We wouldn't normally put up bail for an outta towner, but he had a nice car he put up for collateral." This had to be some car.

"What kind of car?" I asked, eyes wide with anticipation.

"Oh, this is great! You gotta see it!" she grabbed a set of keys and walked us around the back of the bonds building to the office's storage shed. She opened the door and flipped the lights and I came face to face with the car from my wet dreams. There in front of me sat a glossy silver Koenigsegg Agera R, crammed into the middle of the little shed. Even in the midst of all the junk the shed held, the car beckoned like a lighthouse to a weary sailor. My heart stuttered a beat and my knees went weak. Then it occurred to me.

"If he can afford a car like this, why didn't he just bail himself out?"

"Turns out he lost everything in a real nasty divorce. His wife got the house and the bank account and all he kept were his clothes and this beauty. He said he was from Miami. He came up here to take care of some business. Said once he's done here, he'll have enough cash to buy everyone in his family their own."

"Must be some serious business." I said.

"I guess. He said something about blowing away his competition and starting over with his dream girl. Whatever."

The words seemed typical enough, so I'm not sure exactly what it was that sent my instincts reeling. I didn't want to dwell on it while I was in the limited presence of this heavenly chunk of metal and leather, so I distracted myself by running my hands over the sparkling clean hood and allowed myself to try out the interior. When I sat in the seat I stifled a moan, partly from the desire to own this car and knowing that I never would and partly from the desire to do nasty things to Ranger while in this car. It might be difficult, but we've made tight spaces work before.

Lula came in right as I was getting ready to leave the office to go on the hunt for Gurstmyer.

"Want to come help me track down a skip?" I asked her.  
>"You know it. I saw when they brought that man's car in yesterday. I wouldn't mind gettin to know a man who drive a car like that." she said.<p>

"Lula! He's a felon!"

"Ya, I don't care what he did if he drives a car like that!" she said. No point in arguing with her.

* * *

><p>We decided to take Lula's Firebird to check out the last known residence. A few minutes later we were parked in front of Sunshine Motel, a sleazy, mostly rent-by-the-hour, hole in the wall establishment. I doubted he was still there, but, no stone left unturned.<p>

"Un-unh." Lula said. "I don't want to go nowhere near this place. In fact, I think I'm-ma bout ready to leave now. Too many bad memories up in here." she shook her head back and forth. I wasn't sure if she was referring more to witnessing the decapitation of a famous chef or her days as a ho. Probably a little of both.

"Oh, come on Lula. Don't be a chicken." I tucked my hands under my arms and flapped my elbows out.

"I aint no chicken. You know that. I was just joking. Of course I can handle it." We got out of the car and entered a small lobby that smelled of a mixture of curry and jasmine. A man of about my height with a slim body and thinning, wispy black hair stepped out of the room that opened up to the area behind the counter.

"What can I do for your ladies?" he asked us, his voice thick with accent.

"I'm looking for this man. This hotel was listed as his last residence." I showed him the picture from the file.

"Oh, yes. I remember. He left on Monday and did not come back for his belongings." The day he robbed the library. Makes sense.

"Do you mind if I look at his things?" I asked.

"Sure, sure." He went into the back room and came back in about two minutes later with a small plastic sack. I dug through the contents and found nothing of much interest. The normal shower stuff, a pair of scissors and a set of dirty clothes that smelled like they had been worn for a week and looked even worse. _Ew!_

* * *

><p>I made Lula look through my purse to find my Germ-X so I wouldn't contaminate it with my dirty clothes hands. I slathered it on generously and thanked the man behind the counter. Lula and I walked back to the car and decided to take a drive around town. We drove past the bakery and Lula tempted me into getting a Boston Cream when she waved her jelly filled donuts in front of my face. When we were done eating, we drove around the outer streets on the edge of the city limits and wound through town. After a couple hours we drove past the movie theater.<p>

"Wait! Go back!" I said, sitting up straight in my seat.

"What? Did you see our man?" Lula rolled her window down, dug around in her purse and pulled out her Glock.

"Put that back!" I pulled her arm down out of sight from the window. "I didn't see _him_. I just saw the movie theater and wanted to go see a movie! _Yeesh_!"

"Oh. A movie does sound kinda good right now. And a big bucket of buttery popcorn with extra butter and a extra large Coke. And maybe some chocolate covered cookie dough. Oh ya." she said.

We debated for a while on which movie to see. Lula wanted to see the action flick, Punch Death and I wanted to see the new Disney animation, Waking Ella. So we compromised and decided on Money for One. It had better reviews, anyway. By the time Lula was sufficiently loaded with snacks that could last me for a month, the movie was already ten minutes in. It was dark when we snuck in and took a couple seats toward the back edge of the theater. I settled in and tried to concentrate on the movie, but a familiar laugh distracted me.

I looked toward the sound of the laughter, squinting my eyes, trying to see if it was who I thought it was. The screen went to a brighter scene and my assessment of the laughter was confirmed. There was Terry Gillman sitting next to Morelli two rows in front of us. Morelli conspicuously dropped a kernel of popcorn down Terry's low cut shirt and his hand moved in to fish it out. When his fingers came out of her shirt holding a popcorn kernel, he popped it in his mouth and smiled over at Terry, causing her to laugh all over again. She leaned over toward Morelli and kissed him like she wanted that kernel back.

Luckily there weren't a lot of other people in the theater right now or they'd probably be getting kicked out by an angry mob. As it was, though, there were only a dozen or so witnesses to what happened next.

Some ass hole had gotten out of his seat and dumped ice cold soda over Morelli's and Gillman's heads. They sat there sopping wet, looking up at me and I realized something was wrong with this picture. I looked at my hand that still held my cup, shocked to find that my soda cup that had been full just a minute ago was now empty. Whoops. Guess I was the ass hole. I looked down at them again. Terry was shooting me looks like a bull about to charge and Morelli was looking cluster fucked. Good.

I repressed a maniacal laugh and turned on my heel to walk away. I stormed up the aisle, made a pit stop at my vacated seat to grab my purse and I kept walking; through the doors of the room the movie was playing in, through the movie theater's front doors. I walked out of the parking lot and down the sidewalk. Lula pulled up to me a block later.

"Get in." she said. We rode in stony silence all the way back to my car. I guess even Lula knew when it was vital to keep her mouth shut. I kept thinking about my reaction in the movie theater. I hadn't been with Morelli in a while, so why should it matter? Further more, I was in love with another man that I was doing way more than fishing for popcorn with. I got out of the Firebird without so much as saying good bye to Lula. I threw myself into my car, slammed the door shut and sped back to Rangeman, hoping that Ranger was still out.

* * *

><p>When I got into the apartment the rooms were dark and quiet. It looked like no one was home so I curled up in the fetal position on the couch and let the tears start streaming out. Before I knew it I was bawling like a little kid who'd just found out her favorite pet had died.<p>

I guess I should have checked the bedroom before I'd assumed that the apartment was empty. A moment after the crying jag started, Ranger ambled out of the bedroom, clothes crinkled like he'd been taking a nap, and he looked me over.

"Babe," his voice was full of gentle concern. He sat on the couch and pulled me onto his lap. He snuggled my head against his chest and stroked my hair. He kissed the top of my head and just let me sob into his black tee shirt.

When the sobbing slowed to a steady trickle of tears I found the strength to lift my head and look at his now ruined shirt. It was wet with tears and covered in snot. He handed me some tissues and let me blow my nose.

"Your shirt," was all I could say.

"I have more tee shirts, Babe. Are you okay?" he asked me.

I just shook my head back and forth. I didn't want to talk about it. I started crying a little harder at the thought of what just took place. But I still wasn't sure if I was more mad at myself or Morelli.

"God, Morelli is an idiot." Ranger whispered and he kissed my head again. I didn't have to ask how he knew. We had a silent communication. It was almost like he could read my mind. Probably he just knew me really well.

Ranger cupped my face in his hand, pulling it up so he could look into my eyes. His face was filled with touching concern. I'd never seen him let his guard down enough to look at me like that.

After feeling my heart spin in my chest from the way he was looking at me, finally, I snapped. I reached up and put a hand behind his head so I could pull his face down to mine. I kissed him with a heat that surprised even me. The kisses gained momentum and soon our tongues were exploring each other's mouths. Our breathing was getting ragged and heavy. I put my hands inside his shirt, frantically rubbing his warm, hard chest and abs. He pulled my hands away and laced his fingers through mine.

"Maybe this isn't a good time for this," he said quietly, looking away from me.

I broke a hand away from his and ran it over the top of his pants. He wanted it bad if the distention of his zipper area was any indicator.

"Please." I whispered, looking into his dilated eyes, my own eyes pleading. "I need this right now." I didn't give him a chance to think it through. I pulled his lips to mine again and, when I was sure he wouldn't deny me again, I led him away from the couch and into the bedroom. I undressed myself while he stood and watched and then I undressed him and led him to the bed with me. We explored each others bodies with our hands, our lips and our tongues until I couldn't wait any more. I had to have him inside of me. We joined in a sensual paradise. It seemed that there was something there that hadn't been there before. The tenderness and the passion were much too strong to be just purely animal magnetism. Maybe it was just because I was feeling extra vulnerable right now, but then, the way he had kissed me all over was softer and more hungry than normal. Was it only in my head?


	4. Cars Aren't All That Can Explode

We collapsed in a tangle of arms, legs and sheets when we were done. Ranger pulled me close to him and kissed my head, my cheek, then my lips. We lay there for a moment and within seconds I was drifting off to Sleepville. When I awoke it was early the next morning and I was alone. I wasn't totally surprised, but that didn't stop a small ache from forming in my chest. I knew that no matter what all that tenderness and affection might have meant last night, he was probably doing his best to shake it off and put things back in his non-committal perspective right at this very moment. After a few minutes of hoping to magically make him reappear in the bed with me, it became apparent that it wasn't going to happen so I hefted myself out of the bed on a deep sigh and trudged into the kitchen in search of food.

As it turns out, it was my lucky day. Ella had already brought breakfast up. Since some of the contents were missing, I assumed that Ranger had already ate before heading out, so I helped myself to the rest. I ate my bagel heaped with cream cheese and chugged the remaining contents of the orange juice carafe. I noticed Rex's cage was sitting on the island so I threw him a little chunk of muffin and ate the rest while I watched him scurry for the treat and bury himself under the shavings when he was done.

I wondered when Ranger would be back and felt another stitch of melancholy course through me. I really didn't feel like thinking too much about what had just come to pass with Ranger, so I called my sister, Val. She updated me on the latest family dinner hi jinks, local gossip and her own crazy life, all the while with kids laughing, screaming and crying in the background. The last scream sounded like a dying animal and we hung up so she could go investigate. Just when I was about to put it down, my phone rang in my hand. I figured Valerie had probably forgotten to tell me something and I almost answered before I remembered about the call from the stalker. I looked at the screen as a precaution. _Shit!_ Even worse than the stalker, it was Morelli! To answer or not to answer? I went with not.

My phone chimed at me a few seconds later, letting me know that I had a voice mail. I groaned and dialed my mailbox. "Cupcake, about last night...It's not what you think." Ya, like I hadn't heard that one before! I set my phone down and stuck my tongue out at it. I got dressed in my leftover Rangeman clothes from when I had been in danger and had to stay here before and fixed my hair in a ponytail high on my head. I didn't feel like sitting around here, so I decided to try my luck looking for my skip. I still had no idea where to start, but I decided to drive around aimlessly again and see if fate wanted to intervene on my behalf.

I made my way through the garage to my Eclipse, hopped in and drove away, making a left out of the garage. I drove around haphazardly. I stopped in at the mall and browsed through half the stores, coming out with a new tube of lipstick and a glittery, deep blue halter top with a little bit of cleavage enhancement built in. It was just coming up on lunch time so I hustled over to my mom's to see if I could catch a free lunch. An hour later I was unbuttoning my jeans and exhaling a blissful sigh after having stuffed my face with fresh potato salad and a deluxe deli-style sandwich with extra meat and fixings. Grandma had gone out with one of her Bingo buddies for the day, so it was unusually quiet in the house. I helped my mom clean up the kitchen and sat to watch Happy Days reruns with my dad for a while.

When Grandma came in I got up to greet her and was instantly taken aback. I had to work very hard not to burst out in rolling laughter. She had on several face rings; one bright pink heart barbell ring on her left eyebrow, one oversized gold hoop on her nose that almost reminded me of a bull's ring, and a big fake stone stud protruding from under her bottom lip.

My lapse in words caught my dad's attention and he turned to see what I was intently gaping at. He mumbled something like, "Crazy bat, maybe she'll get an infection." and turned back to the TV. I was still staring, speechless. I thought that they had to be fake. I couldn't imagine Grandma going through with a full-fledged piercing.

"So, those are fake, right?" I asked her.

"Fake? Of course not!" Grandma said. "I'm no wimp! I only like the real thing!"

_Wait until my mother sees this, _I thought. Just then she came into the living room, her mouth open to say hello to Grandma. She stopped in her tracks with her mouth still in the shape of the words she had been about to say when she saw Grandma's face.

"What. Is. That?" my mom demanded to Grandma.

"This here's what they call some bitchin' fashion!" Grandma said. "And best part is, I only had to pay twenty bucks for all of it."

"So, they must have had some sale at the mall, then, right?" I asked, getting a bad feeling about all of this.

"Oh, I didn't get this done at the mall. There was a nice young man selling jewelry and purses out of the back of his van outside the beauty parlor today." She pointed to her eyebrow ring. "I saw this thing on the table and asked him what this little doohickey does. He said that all the cool people were wearing these nice things on their eyebrows and I thought, I'm a cool person. So I asked him how I would go about getting that in my eyebrow and turns out he had his own little piercing station in the back of his van." Oh boy.

"I hope you've got something to put on that. He did give you a salve for it, right?"

Grandma just looked at me as if she were trying to decipher Morse code. I blew out a sigh. I took her down the street to the neighborhood pharmacy and got her set up with some antimicrobial soap and a bottle of peroxide. I dropped her off close to dinner time and decided I wasn't in the mood to hear my mom complain about Grandma's piercings or my current man situation. I drove away after seeing that Grandma was safely in the door and headed toward the park.

It was a warm and sunny day, a great time to soak up some smog-filtered rays. It was coming up on dusk, so the park was starting to clear out minus a few dog walkers and families who were desperate to wear their hyper kids out before heading home. I stepped out of the car, and strolled over to the bench in front of the pond. I was in the middle of enjoying a quiet, peaceful moment when I saw a dog that looked like a mix between a Golden Retriever and a Great Dane in the distance. He was barreling toward me at an alarming rate. Bob. And where there was Bob, there was sure to be Morelli.

I sucked in a breath and debated the wisdom of making a mad dash to my car. Probably Bob would think that it was time to play and he'd tackle me to the ground if he saw me running away. Then I'd have to face Morelli covered in dirt and dog drool. Probably less painful in more ways than one if I just waited for him at the bench.

Sure enough, moments after Bob had sniffed my crotch, Morelli appeared from around the bend, holding the leash that, presumably, had at one point been attached to Bob. I could tell by the way he was walking that he was nervous. It looked like he might have been talking to himself, too. Imagine that; big, bad vice cop Morelli scared of little old me. How ironic is that?

"Bob sure does have good taste in women." Morelli said in a weak attempt to flirt when he finally made it over to me. I turned my head away from him, giving him the cold shoulder, and focused on a flock of geese to my right.

"Cupcake, I don't know what to say. It's this case I'm working on." I didn't respond. I already knew what he was going to say and it didn't matter. I couldn't get past seeing him like that with Gillman. I tried to focus harder on the geese so that maybe I wouldn't cry again.

Maybe it was hypocritical of me to feel the way I did considering all the things I'd done with Ranger, but that didn't change how I felt. _Besides, where is this relationship going? _A little voice in my head piped up. It's true. We were constantly off and on; him because he didn't want to commit if I didn't change my life around. And he deserved to have what he wanted. He was a good man. My problem was that I wasn't just in love with him. There was still the little issue of the second man in my life that I couldn't bring myself to get rid of.

"Alright, I understand." he said after a minute of me not giving him the time of day. "Call me if you change your mind. I'll always love you, Stephanie." He kissed me on the cheek and he and Bob sauntered into the darkening horizon, leaving me alone.

I sat there on the bench just a little while longer, trying to collect myself. The park had emptied out completely by the time I felt like I could move without having another mental breakdown. I walked, shoulders slumped, in slow motion to my car. A piece of paper flapping in the breeze, tucked under my windshield wiper caught my attention. _Damn Morelli, _I thought, _Why does he have to make this more difficult?_

I swiped the note from under the wiper blade and read it.

_"I don't like it when you spend so much time with the men in black, Stephanie. How am I supposed to give you your surprises when you're locked up like that?"_

A shiver ran down my spine. I got in my car, in a hurry to leave and saw the giant stuffed frog sitting in my passenger seat. I heard a ticking sound coming from somewhere inside my car.

"What the hell?" I said out loud. My immediate reaction was "Bomb!" so I darted out of the car and ran away from it as fast as my feet would carry me. At about the time I stumbled over my feet and plummeted to the ground I heard, _BAROOM!_ For a moment I was so disoriented that I thought my fall had somehow caused an explosion. Then I rolled over to my back and looked toward my car. It was a big, bright ball of flame against the Trenton night sky.

I got to my feet, brushed myself off and stood watching the fire lick up the last remains of the interior of my car. Ranger showed up about a minute later. He silently looked me over, assessing the damage. Scraped hands, arms and knees from my fall was the extent of my injuries. When Morelli got to me, Ranger was convinced that I was okay.

"Later Babe." he said. He marched to the Porsche Turbo, got in and drove away without looking back even once. I stood there watching his car fade into the distance, wondering about how he had completely transformed from just a few hours ago. He offered no sign of the feelings he had shown yesterday whatsoever. I felt a twinge of anger and anguish roll through me at the same time. Man, I was having a bad day.

I remembered that Morelli was standing in front of me and switched my attention back to him. He pushed a strand of hair out of my face and tucked it behind my ear. I flinched and backed away a bit, looking back away from him.

"That's not fair, Steph. I've had to watch you working with Ranger all these years. You think I haven't noticed the way you look at each other? You think I don't know that you're in love with both of us?" All the breath instantly dispelled from me. I felt like I'd been sucker punched in the stomach. "I know, Cupcake. I've just been hoping you'd pick me in the end. And Terry, I'm not in love with her. It's just this case we're on. We're undercover and we have to act like a couple when we're out in public. The man we've been following was in the theater that night." he said, his voice pleading for me to understand.

His confession, though, had made me come to an appalling realization. "You shouldn't have to live like that." I told him.

"It's my job, Cupcake."

"No, I mean wondering what's going to happen all the time. Never knowing for sure if I'm really yours. You deserve better." I explained.

"All I want is you."

"No, Morelli, all you want is the idea of what you think I should be and I haven't been straight with you. I'm not that person. I don't want to be a housewife and I don't want to quit my job. I love you and I think maybe I always will, but it's not enough to make me change and it's not enough to keep me from loving someone else, too."

He nodded his head, his eyes wide, in a half-bewildered stupor. He looked like someone had just backhanded him across the face. I hated seeing him like this, but it had to be done. Maybe someday things would change and I could be what he deserved, but I didn't feel anywhere near capable of that right now. Before he could completely come around and try to talk me out of my decision I walked away. I called the control room at Rangeman to have someone pick me up. I was tempted to go back to my apartment, but I was really too scared to chance it, especially if the stalker was brave enough to sneak a bomb into my car in a public parking lot.

Twenty minutes later I was back at Rangeman. I thanked Hal for picking me up and stepped into the elevator. I steeled myself for having to see him again on the way up to the seventh floor and next thing I knew, I was back in Ranger's apartment. I was in a foul mood. I was upset with Morelli, I was upset with Ranger, I was upset about my car and I was even more upset with myself. I was in no mood to attempt to decipher Ranger's little code mood so I stormed past Ranger without a word or a glance, grabbed a pillow and a blanket from his bed and ignored his invitation to sleep with him in his bed. Two could play the silent game. I made my bed on the couch, turned the lights out and curled up in a ball under the covers and quietly cried myself to sleep.


	5. A Date With Destiny, Not Literally!

**Thank you to Janet Evanovich for allowing the use of her characters and her world in the making of this story. Please review with praise or constructive criticism. Every little bit counts!**

**Chapter 5: A Date With Destiny, Not Literally**

Consciousness crept up on me early the next day. I unwillingly opened my eyes. I wasn't feeling great. I had a crick in my neck and I was so hungry that my stomach felt like it was eating itself for breakfast. As I sat up, a familiar smell assaulted my senses. Could it be real? I lunged off the couch, as excited as a six year old on Christmas morning. I forgot how slippery socks were on the tile floor. I slipped around on the kitchen floor and held my arms out in an attempt to keep myself from planting my face on the edge of the table. I must have looked like one of those cartoon characters sliding on a banana peel. I eventually managed to grab the corner of the table and stabilize myself.

I looked down at the table and my breath caught in my throat. There on the plate in the middle, looking like a decadent centerpiece, were two Boston Cream donuts. On one side of the plate of donuts was a plate with 6 slices of bacon and on the other side was a small plate containing a slice of marble, chocolate frosted birthday cake. There was a note propped up in front of the chair that I had assigned to myself when I ate dinner here.

_Babe, you had a hard day yesterday. Hope this starts today off better for you._

Aww, he loves me! I didn't even bother to fret over the fact that I was supposed to be on a diet. I needed this food right now. This was the ultimate comfort food and I could definitely use some comfort. I would get back on my diet tomorrow. I dug in, packing food away like a vacuum cleaner. After every morsel of the food was relocated to my stomach, I felt tired again. I cleaned up after myself and laid down for a quick nap on Ranger's bed. I was drawn from my restful slumber when I heard humming coming from the living room. Ella. She was doing her duties as Ranger's housekeeper.

I realized I had left my blanket and pillow laying unfolded on the couch so I rushed out of the bedroom in hopes of getting to it before she did. I didn't want her thinking she had to clean up after me, too! My hasty gallop turned into a nasty collision when Ella and I both rounded the corner at the same time. All of the clean clothes she had been carrying to the back bedroom flew into the air, falling haphazardly back to the ground. We were both sitting with our butts planted to the floor, staring at each other in a daze before we both started laughing hysterically. We got up when we could stop laughing and I helped her gather up the clothes she had lost on her way down. I couldn't help but notice that, although Ranger had several clean outfits in the stack, there were no underwear. _Yum._

"I'm so sorry, Ella!" I finally said after I could focus my brain again.

She smiled from ear to ear. "I'm just so happy to see you here," her voice was filled with inference. "And how are things with our man? At this rate, I bet you two will be married by next year!" she clasped her hands in front of her, clearly excited by the prospect.

"No! I slept on the couch last night, for goodness sakes! People who are going to get married don't sleep apart like that." I said in my defense.

"Lots of people sleep like that when they have lover's quarrels." she said, looking downright mischievous now. She looked at me for a moment and took to heart the fact that I wasn't sharing her enthusiasm "What's wrong with that? You do love him, don't you?"

"It's complicated." I said, looking away and rubbing the back of my neck.

"Not as much as you think." Her eyes showed a spark of knowledge that I clearly did not possess. "I've seen him look at you. And, darling, he has never let another woman into this apartment for even one night, much less as much time as you've spent here. I don't care what he tells you, the boy has got it bad for you."

I was speechless. I wanted what she said to be true, but I had plenty of reasons to doubt her. She proceeded to put the clothes away, leaving me alone in the hallway to think on what she said. Just when she let herself out of the apartment, my phone rang. I went to the nightstand where it sat and looked at the read-out. Great, my mother. Just what I needed. I reluctantly picked my phone up and answered.

"Why am I not surprised any more when your cars get blown up? The whole neighborhood is getting used to it. We only got two phone calls this time. What kind of mother has a daughter that everyone thinks its normal when her car gets blown to smithereens?" she asked. I didn't have an answer for her, so I just waited for her to continue her rampage.

"You know, Martha Carusso's daughter has a nice job as a manager at the bank and she's already given her mother two healthy grandchildren. Maybe you could talk to her daughter and she could give you a job. Then maybe you'll meet a nice young man to marry."

"Mom, I like my job and I don't want kids." There was a brief silence and I could just see my mom crossing herself on the other end of the line.

She sighed, resigned to the fact that I was a spouse-less, kid-less, walking disaster. "Well, can I at least expect you for dinner tonight? We're having pot roast and a chocolate lava cake for dessert." She had me at chocolate lava cake. "Maybe you could bring Joseph."

"Joseph won't be coming to dinner any more. We've broken up indefinitely." There was another hesitation, this time she was probably either looking at the laundry, contemplating ironing or staring longingly at the cabinet that held her secret stash of booze.

"Maybe I'll call Shirley Seger. I heard her son just got divorced. He sounds like a nice young man."

"No fix-ups Mom! I'll bring someone, I promise!" I hung up before she could argue with me. I drew up a mental list of who I could ask to go to dinner with me. Only one name came to mind. I grimaced. Well, maybe if I asked really nicely, Ranger would agree to go. I called him.

"Babe," he answered.

"So, do you have plans tonight?" I asked. Might as well get this over with.

"Nothing special."

"Would you want to go somewhere with me?"

"I'll go anywhere with you." I got a little flutter in my stomach at that response.

"Great. Because I need a date for dinner at my parents' house tonight." I closed my eyes and held my breath, waiting for him to take his words back.

After a short silence he finally said, "You owe me." and disconnected. I could deal with that. His debts were fun to pay, at least the ones that I usually owed him, anyway.

At five fifty we were coming to a stop in front of my parents' house. Mom and grandma were already waiting for me at the door. Their eyes were bright, Grandma's probably for seeing Ranger, my mom's probably from being slightly snockered. We got up to the door and Grandma stepped out of the shadows of the doorway. Ranger's eyebrows lifted, creasing his forehead. Takes a lot to impress him that much. A hint of a smile played around his lips. He found Grandma's piercings amusing. I punched him in the shoulder, effectively making his smile broaden.

Grandma made her way up to Ranger and patted him on the cheek. "Good to see you here again. So what happened? Why haven't you come to dinner? Oh, I bet you've been out there marking bad guys and fighting terrorists in some foreign country. I could go for that." Grandma made her best mean face, which really just looked hilarious. She lunged forward and swung her hands up in front of her, forming a gun with her fingers. A lamp fell from the table onto the sofa when her fist gun swiped its shade. It was saved by the worn, but still comfy, couch cushions. She pointed her gun fingers at the lamp and said, "_POW! POW! POW!" _she blew her fingers and pretended to holster her gun. I looked up at Ranger and saw that he was smiling again.

I went into the kitchen to help my mom set the food out on the table. Right at six o'clock the door banged open and two kids ran into the house, yelling for their grandma, followed by a teetering toddler who was precariously running after the older girls and sputtering baby talk. Val and Albert were next in the door. They all breezed into the dining room and took a seat at the table within seconds so as not to be the reason dinner was held up. Mary Alice was snapping her teeth, claiming to be an alligator. She must have gotten bored with being a horse.

"You can't be an alligator," Angie said to Mary Alice. "Alligators live in swamps. There are no swamps even close to here." Mary Alice snapped her teeth in Angie's direction and Angie gave a disgusted sigh and rolled her eyes. The kids were served their dinner plates, loaded with chunks of pot roast, potatoes and fresh cooked green beans. Mary Alice reached for the gravy boat and poured gravy over all over the food that didn't already have gravy soaking into it.

We waited for my dad to get his serving and then the rest of us served ourselves. I was about to take my first bite when I heard Mary Alice growl across the table from me. She snapped her teeth and shoved her face into her plate. She came up with a large chunk of pot roast between her teeth, shaking her head back and forth, swinging the gravy smothered meat with it and effectually spraying everyone at the table with fresh gravy. Several people stopped with forks halfway to their mouths, inspected the gravy splotches and shot Mary Alice looks that could kill. Of course, my father was still concentrating so hard on making his fork land in his mouth with food on it that he had yet to notice. I looked over at her and had to stifle a laugh. Her pot roast chunk was still hanging halfway out of her mouth and she was looking at everyone, proud of her production. I looked at Ranger and saw that he was smiling again. We wiped ourselves clean and continued with dinner.

When dinner was done I helped my mom clean up the table and set up for dessert. To my surprise, even Ranger had a slice of chocolate lava cake, although his was about a third the size of mine.

"That wasn't so bad." Ranger said when we were almost ready to go.

"Ya." I said, honestly surprised that Mary Alice's gravy shower had been the worst of the evening. "You must've scared them into submission," I said.

"I have that effect on people." Ranger said, looking proud of himself. My mom ventured over to us, handed me a bag of leftovers and grabbed Ranger's face and kissed him on the cheek. I laughed out loud when I saw the stunned daze settle on his face.

"Have you been tippling, mom?" I asked her, although I already knew she had.

She glared at me, indignant. "I wouldn't do a thing like that when we have special guests over." Even as she said it I could hear a slight slur in her words. She turned back to Ranger. "You take care of my daughter," she said. "With any luck you'll marry her and make me feel like I'm not a failure as a mother."

"MOM!" I yelled, slack jawed with disbelief. Ranger was smiling from ear to ear. He was sure getting more entertainment than he'd bargained for. We made our way out the door and to the car. We waved goodbye to everyone before we motored away.

"I can't believe I've lost my edge." Ranger said.

"I wouldn't worry about it. My family would think a serial killer was super if they suspected that there was a chance he might marry me." I said. Sad enough, it really wasn't an exaggeration. They'd had a serial killer over for dinner on several occasions in an attempt to fix me up and the only person who picked up on any bad vibes was my dad. I wondered what my dad thought about Ranger.

"Earth to Babe." Ranger said. "Are you getting wedding bell fever over there?" he asked me.

"_ME_?" I shrieked at him. "No! I wouldn't marry you!" I almost choked on my words. _Liar._ I thought to myself. "Not that I don't think you're smart and brilliant and _SO_ freakin' sexy, but you don't want to marry me." I gasped when I realized my error. "I mean, I don't want to marry... I just don't want to..." my voice trailed off.

Ranger's smile returned. He grabbed my hand. "Babe," he said, like I was an adorable little puppy. I yanked my hand away from his, crossed my arms over my chest and pouted all the way back to Rangeman. I was _not _an adorable little puppy.

I went to sleep on the couch again that night. I don't know what I'd been hoping for with that whole marriage conversation, but it wasn't that. Okay, so I knew exactly what I'd hoped. I'd hoped he'd tell me he'd changed his mind, get down on one knee and propose to me with a ring the size of Rhode Island. Well, I guess I didn't care about a big ring that much. I thunked myself in the head. "Stupid, stupid, stupid!" I said. Ranger came into the living room.

"You say something, Babe?"

"Uh, ya, I said good night."

"Oh, I thought I heard you call someone stupid."

"Nope. Not me." I said, feeling the flush creep up my neck and into my face. I crawled onto my makeshift bed and pulled the blanket over my head. Ranger pulled it down over my shoulders.

"You're a horrible liar." he sat next to me and kissed me once lightly on the lips. "You know, that bed would feel a lot more comfortable if you were in it with me. It's almost scary, I think I'm starting to get used to having you in it."

My heart stuttered in my chest. Okay, Stephanie, get a grip. Take it at face value. He's not proposing marriage. He just wants a warm body to sleep next to. I passed on the bed invitation and we said our good nights. Sometime in the middle of the night I had a nightmare that had me waking in a cold sweat. The details were a little sketchy, but I remembered my stalker chasing me down the street with one of those hammers from those strength testing games that are staples at all carnivals. That was all I needed to change my mind about sleeping in the bed. I walked into Ranger's bedroom and got into bed next to him. He was right. This bed was a lot more comfortable with me in it.


	6. Envy, Wrath and Lust, All In One Day

The next morning I was awakened by fingers brushing lightly down my back. Chills followed the lines that he traced and heat flashed down through my whole body. Ranger gave me a hot kiss that scorched my lips and sent me over the edge. I climbed onto him in my sleepy haze and straddled him. I could feel his hardness pressing into my panties and I moaned. Ranger laughed and sat halfway up to kiss me, lightly this time.

"Sorry, Babe. We're running late already. We've got a new hire to train today." All of the heat suddenly turned to ice.

"We?" I asked.

"I want you to give her the grand tour of the office. Then you can introduce her to everyone and train her on the reports program. After lunch she'll go out on the field with Tank and me."

"Um, okay," I said, trying my hardest not to get my panties in a twist. Figuratively speaking of course. "And if I don't want to?" I asked. Ranger's face went blank for a second.

"Please?" That made me smile. I was the only person I had ever heard him say please to. That was all the convincing I needed. Besides, it wasn't like there were a lot of FTAs out there, waiting to be captured. And the one that was apparently wasn't ready to be found yet. I could definitely use the boost to my income that working for Rangeman provided.

We got up, took our separate showers and ate a quick breakfast. We wandered down to the fifth floor, where the offices were located, and found Lucy sitting, waiting for us in a sienna-brown leather club chair in front of Ranger's office. She looked almost the same as the day of her interview except that she had traded the slacks for snug-fitting black cargo pants and a black button-up blouse, still with the top buttons undone to reveal a black lace camisole. When she saw us approaching, her face brightened. I thought maybe she was happy to see both of us, just glad that she had been given the job. As she stood, though, she clasped Ranger's hand in hers and didn't give me a second look.

"What's the plan for today, Ranger?" she said, sounding a little too excited for a Rangeman employee.

"You'll start the day with Stephanie. She'll take you around to meet the other employees, show you the offices and get you started on the reports program," he answered, nothing but professional and courteous. He broke free from her grip and distanced himself some and she finally looked at me, really seeing me for the first time.

"I'll check in after a while," Ranger turned and sauntered away. Lucy and I both stood watching him walk away and when he was out of sight, Lucy directed her wide-eyed gaze to me.

"That has got to be one of the sexiest men alive." she said. "Is he attached?" I thought about it for a beat.

"Attached? Um, no, not-not technically." I stammered on my words a little.

Lucy's eyes darkened and her smile was treacherous. "He will be soon," she predicted.

I fought the urge to tackle her right then and there. Ranger probably wouldn't be too happy if I battered his brand new employee. Still, I couldn't stop thinking about the different methods I could use to take her down. A kick to the back of her knee. Grabbing her by her spotless hair-do and throwing her to the floor, following up with a severe bashing of her head on the hard tile floor. I willed myself to stop that line of thinking, however difficult it was, and get on with business. It took a little while to be able to look at her with a smile that didn't look like a psychopath on the brink, but by the time I had finished showing her where the restrooms were and familiarizing her with the break room and Ella's handiwork in the kitchen. I had calmed a little. I took her through the offices and introduced her to the staff that was present.

"This is Tank. He's Ranger's second in command." I explained. Tank looked very happy to meet her and she took her cues.

"Tank, I can definitely see how you got that name." Lucy reached out to latch onto one of Tank's oversized biceps. "Nice." she said. She arched an eyebrow at him and pulled her hand away. That was all it took. Tank's eyes went to BFE, where all men's eyes go when their brain takes a nap and their libido takes over.

Next up was Hector. I warned her before we got within ear shot that Hector didn't speak English.

"No hay problema." she said. Show off. We made our way up to Hector. "Hola, papi. Me llamo Lucy. ¿Como va?" she said, not seeming at all disturbed by his tear tattoo or gruff appearance. He smiled up at her, pleased that he could speak to another colleague in his native language. They had a short conversation in Spanish that ended with her laughing and brushing her hand down his arm. Lucy turned back to me with an expression that said _I could have any man in this place. What about you?_ I arched an eyebrow at her, trying to be telepathic. _Well, sure, if I wanted to prance around, acting like a slut, I could, too!_ I thought at her.

We made our way to the rest of the men who all, unfortunately, showed no aversion whatsoever to her. In fact, I practically had to reach over and wipe drool off the chins of half of them. This was disheartening.

When we made it around to the reports desk I pulled another chair over and we took our seats.

"So what's on the other floors?" Lucy asked me.

"Sixth floor is employee apartments, seventh is Ranger's place."

"Oooh. When do I get to tour that? I would love to see Ranger's casa."

"That's strictly off limits. No one can go up there without a special fob." I explained.

"I bet I'll have my own fob by next week," she wiggled her eyebrows. I was barely able to contain my desire to reach out and choke the living daylights out of her. I felt like rubbing it in her face that I already had one, but figured it wouldn't be very smart to goad her like that right now. She'll eventually figure it out and I hoped I got to see her face when she did!

I changed the subject by taking her step by step through the search program. After I did two for her, I let her take over and do them by herself. I was incredibly bored watching her go through the process and was about to fall asleep when I felt all the little hairs on the back of my neck stand up. If that hadn't been enough to alert me of Ranger's approach, Lucy's sudden erect posture and excessive primping would have been.

Ranger strolled over to our desk. "How's it going?" He asked me. I opened my mouth to answer and Lucy stole the opening.

"I love the offices. This seems like a great place to work," she sounded as giddy as a school girl. Ranger looked over at her and briefly nodded his head.

"It's time to get out on the field," he told her. "Get your things and meet me in my office in five." He looked down at me again before he walked away, "Later." The inflection sounded like he meant to say, _I'm going to do really dirty things to you later._ Instant hot flash.

Lucy primped some more, smoothing invisible flyaways and de-wrinkling non-existent creases from her clothes. She coated her lips in fruit scented, blush colored lip gloss and scurried away to Ranger's office. I sat for a moment, unsure of what to do next. In the end I decided to get lunch from the break room. On the way, I passed Ranger's office. The door was open and I could hear Lucy doing her best to be seductive.

"I bet a strong, independent man like you has no problem keeping all these men in line," she said. Her voice was so laced with explicit suggestion that I just about gagged. "I can't wait to get out in the field with you. What are you doing afterward?"

I commanded my feet to keep walking and attempted to convince myself that I didn't care about his answer to that. I grabbed the first sandwich I saw out of the refrigerator, rushed out of the kitchen and walked past Ranger's office again. Okay, so maybe I did care a little.

"Are we going to have a problem keeping this professional?" I heard Ranger ask her. I grinned, beaming with satisfaction.

I took my food back to my desk and finally looked at it. Egg salad. Not my favorite. Oh well, I'd be pretty obvious if I didn't eat it so I did a little more research while I chowed down. None of the research requests were labeled as high priority so I decided to search for my skip for the rest of the day. I drove around aimlessly in one of the Rangeman black Jeep Cherokees since they were the most inconspicuous of the fleet. After a few hours of touring Trenton with no sign of my skip, I decided to turn in for the day.

I let myself into Ranger's apartment and found him on the couch drinking a Corona.

"Babe," he greeted me and held his bottle up to indicate that I could grab one, too. He looked worn out.

"So, how was the field?" I should have been asking out of concern for his exhausted state, but I really just wanted to see if he was about to cave to Lucy's will and let her have her way with him.

"I might have to shoot myself." he said.

I smiled. "Things not going as well as planned with the new girl?"

"Oh, she could get the job done if she wanted to. I'm more worried about the safety of the other men in her presence. She's very distracting and her flirtations with them, and mostly with me, has all the men lusting," he rolled his eyes.

I wasn't sure if I felt more irritated about Lucy's blatant seduction attempts or relieved that Ranger apparently found it annoying. I went with a little of both.

"Are you going to have to fire her?" One could hope.

"No, I'm just going to send her out with someone she won't feel so compelled to pursue. I was thinking Hal might do the trick." I tried to hide my disappointment, but looked at the silver lining. At least she wouldn't be all over Ranger for most of the day.

I went to the fridge and grabbed a Corona. I sat on the couch next to Ranger and grabbed the remote. I flipped through the channels and settled on a Rambo marathon. I looked over to Ranger and was glad to see that he was actually relaxing. His legs were spread in that typical man sprawl, his arm resting on the edge of the couch. I reclined on the couch, tossing my feet onto his lap and his other arm came to rest on my leg. Not even a quarter of the movie passed before I felt his hand slowly making its way up my leg. Somewhere in the back of my mind rang the memory of something Lula had once told me. Something to do with watching action movies with men. I quickly forgot what I was trying to remember when his hand crept further and further north. When it finally reached its destination, I was instantly engulfed in fiery excitement. While his hand worked its magic from the outside of my pants, my foot started to work some of its own over his little soldier, although there really wasn't anything little about it.

It only took a minute or two of this to shift into a new direction. Suddenly Ranger was on top of me, his hand up my shirt, grasping and squeezing my breasts and kissing me lasciviously. Our breathing grew more ragged and more heavy by the second. We both wanted to rip some clothes off so we stood and stripped each other down. We kissed, our tongues melding and our hands wandering each other's bodies. He nuzzled my collar bone and trailed his tongue from the base of my neck, up to my ear, where spindles of desire were cast through me. I couldn't wait any more so I hopped up, wrapped my legs around his waist and lowered myself onto him. He pinned me against the wall and kept me in that position until we both convulsed. I kept my legs clenched around him until the fireworks disappeared from in front of my eyes. When I was finally breathing normal and was beginning to see clearly again I disengaged my legs and he released me from him and the wall.

I attempted to walk to the bedroom, but my legs started to give way when I moved. I laughed at my debilitated state and Ranger swooped in to pick me up before I could completely crumple to the floor. He cradled me in his arms and took me to the bedroom.

"I'm thinking I could use a shower right now," he said and went to take care of it.

After about thirty seconds I didn't care if my legs were still weak, I wanted a shower with Ranger. His shower was intoxicating all by itself. I shuddered to think of the pleasure of a shower with Ranger in it with me. I carried myself into the bathroom and slowly opened the glass door to shower heaven. I stepped in behind Ranger and surprised him when I put my arms around him and wrapped my hand around his package. Within minutes we were lathering and rinsing, then we were ready for another orgasmic expedition. After our journey was complete, the hot water started to run out, so we quickly lathered and rinsed again and stepped out just before the water reached icy cold. We toweled off and slumped onto the bed in an exhausted heap, my last conscious memory a sweet kiss on my ear.


	7. What a Horking Day!

**Thank you, Janet Evanovich, for lending your world to us FanFic writers to have a blast with!**

**If you enjoy what you read here, I would be super, ultra happy if you leave a review! If you have any constructive criticism, please, feel free to leave that as well!** **I sincerely hope that you have as much fun reading this as I did writing it!**

My slumber was interrupted the next day when sunlight crept in through the small gap between the curtains and angled itself directly into my eyes. I groaned and turned over in an attempt to escape the bothersome intrusion and realized that if the sun was already that high up, then it must be way past time to get up. I shot out of the bed and cringed. My legs felt as stiff as four by fours. I smiled when I remembered how they had come to be that way. It was worth every little ache. I was pulled away from my reminiscing when a little corner of my mind registered that I was supposed to be doing something at this moment. I looked at the clock. Eight thirty! I was supposed to go to the office with Ranger at seven! I threw my uniform on and slicked my hair back into a half-assed ponytail. I shot a quick glance into the mirror before I took off for the office. I didn't look as pristine as a woman like Lucy, but it would have to do.

I took the elevator down and power walked to Ranger's office. I got there just in time to come face to face with Lucy as she was arranging her girls in preparation to enter the office. She did a once over on me, not bothering to hide her disgust at my appearance.

"Where did you come from? I've been monitoring the security cameras with Hector and I didn't see you come in," she carped with a tone equally as disgusted as her expression. _Gee_, was she starting to suspect something?

I was still contemplating how I should answer her when the office door swung open. We both diverted our attention to the sex god standing before us.

"I just woke up. _Someone_ forgot to inform me that it was time to go to work." I told Ranger.

"Sorry. I didn't want to wake you early this morning. I figured you needed to recuperate after last night," Ranger said to me with a half-cocky smile. I was pretty sure my answering smile must have occupied over half of my face. I was elated that he didn't seem to care if Lucy knew. I looked over at her to gauge her reaction. I can't say I was completely disappointed to see her shooting daggers at me. I was definitely feeling smug. Ranger interrupted my silent jubilation when he manifested a manila folder and handed it to me.

"I'd like you two to review this new product line together. We're trying to implement a new promotion for an all-inclusive women's security package. The basic information is in the folder. There will be complimentary women's self defense classes with the service package. The package, itself, will include customized home and vehicle security systems along with a monthly subscription to our background checks on anyone, from men they're dating to doctors to babysitters and nannies. I think two women would be much more qualified to design a marketing plan than our all male panel."

"Wow. That's a great idea." Lucy said. "Sexy and smart. Just the kind of man I need." she arched a perfectly manicured eyebrow at him and laced her arm around his. Ranger ignored her comment and moved out of her clutches, closer to me. This was actually kind of cute. For once the big bad super hero needed protection. He was standing about three inches to my side so I parked my arm on his shoulder and stroked the back of his neck possessively. I was pretty darn proud of myself when I noticed that he had goose bumps all down his arms. Good to know I could do that to him. I stored that bit away for future use and planted my eyes back on Lucy. She was looking the other way, studying a nondescript painting, pretending not to notice our little exchange. Her confidence didn't seem to be deflected in the least. _Geez!_What would it take to make this woman give up?

Ranger kissed my temple and walked back into his office, shutting the door behind him. Lucy's cool facade disappeared with him.

"What do you mean, coming onto mi amorcito like that?" she said. Her face was contorted so that she looked like a rabid dog. All she was missing was the foam at the mouth. I didn't know much Spanish, but I did know the meaning of _mi amor._

"He's _not_ your _love_." I said with an exasperated sigh. She gasped and her eyes went wide with appalled shock. Apparently she wasn't used to anyone telling her she was wrong.

"¿Como atreves a decirme que no es mío? ¡Maldita puta! Quién crees que eres? ¡No eres nadie! ¡Eres un gusano que aplasto debajo de mi pie!" she gabbled.

"You know, I don't understand what you're saying, but from the one word I grabbed, I think you need to watch what you say to me." When I told her this she cackled like a wicked witch. Every hair on my body stood on end.

"No, _you _need to watch _your _back. This. Isn't. Over." She stormed off, leaving me to work on the marketing plan alone, not that I particularly wanted to work with her after that. If I was being completely honest, I hadn't even wanted to work with her _before _that. After a dazed moment I wandered over to an empty desk and plopped myself into the chair in front of it. I laid all of the contents of the folder out side by side, found a tablet of paper and started jotting down notes. About two hours later my concentration was broken by a paper plate sliding to a stop in front of me. I eyed the contents. A juicy burger with bacon and Swiss. It smelled like heaven. My mouth started to water and I looked up to see the generous person who was saving me from another turkey sandwich. I was shocked to see a totally new Lucy smiling down at me.

"I'm so sorry about how I acted earlier. That was totally unacceptable. I asked around and found out that you have a weakness for fast food." she laughed nervously. "Can you please forgive me? We'll start all over again." She shoved the burger a little closer to me.

"Um, okay..." I said, still a little skeptical of her sincerity. I figured she was just trying to butter me up to get on Ranger's good side. I knew I probably shouldn't accept the burger, but it was emanating such succulent, savory aromas right under my nose. I couldn't help myself. Lucy pulled a chair up beside me and started looking at the details of the promotion and my notes.

"This looks pretty good." she pointed to my notes. "That's a great idea to try to run a piece on the news. Maybe we could have a sample demonstration on the evening news. I think that one gets the most viewers." We discussed different marketing techniques until Hal showed up to collect Lucy.

"Hey, Hal." I winked at him and a full-scale attack of red blush rushed over his face. He turned his attention to Lucy.

"Ready?" he asked her.

"For what?" Lucy asked.

"I'll be training you in the field today," he explained, looking uncomfortable now. He must have thought she had known.

"What about Ranger?" she sounded panicked. I could see her aloof disposition slowly slipping away.

"He's otherwise engaged at the moment." Hal answered.

"O-Okay." she stuttered. She moved with deliberate apathy to collect her things, probing the room to see if Ranger might appear, after all. I did my best to shut down my slowly spreading smile. This was entertainment. I watched Hal cart her off like a woman on the way to her own execution.

As soon as they were out of sight, I packed the papers back into their folder with the addition of my notes. I was practically bouncing down the hallway, to the garage. Things were working out great with Lucy! Since I didn't have much else to do, and I was feeling celebratory, I decided to stop in for a visit with an old friend.

I pulled up to the curb in front of Mary Lou's house and plotted my way through the toy filled maze of a front yard. My stomach started rolling about halfway through and by the time Mary Lou opened the door to me, I wasn't sure if I could make it to the bathroom in time.

I ran past her, into the house, without greeting and wrenched the bathroom door shut behind me. I made it to the toilet without a second to spare before I heaved up chunks of undigested burger. A few heaves later I was pretty sure I had emptied out the entire contents of my stomach. I turned to rinse my mouth out in the bathroom sink and saw Mary Lou standing in the doorway, watching me with a light in her eyes.

"Oh my god! What did Morelli say? Is he excited?" She was practically vibrating with buoyancy.

"What? Morelli? I'm not with him anymore. And anyway, does Morelli know _what_?"

"Wait, isn't that what you came over to tell me? Who's is it then?" she asked me.

"What are you talk..ing...?" my voice trailed off as her meaning dawned on me. I thought about it for a minute to see if it was a feasible possibility and realized that Ranger and I hadn't thought to use any kind of birth control that first morning after our little hiking excursion. Little black dots swam in front of my eyes and, before I could try to prevent it, I crumpled to the floor.

* * *

><p>I felt a light tap on my head and groaned. The tapping came back and my surroundings swam into focus. A little boy in nothing but a diaper was standing close by, throwing grapes at my head. That would explain the pesky tapping. I looked around me and realized I was stretched out on Mary Lou's sofa. I attempted to sit up and put my hand to my head when dizziness swept through me. I felt something wet an dripping. A cool compress. The memory of events before my fainting spell surfaced and I groaned again. My hands instantly went to my stomach as if I might be able to feel the baby moving already. Then I thought about how far along I would be. Could I be having morning sickness only a week and a half in? I was sure that stranger things had happened.<p>

I looked at the toddler again and saw the he was frozen in mid pitch, grape in hand. His face showed that he was torn. I guess throwing grapes at conscious adults was more risky than he wanted to chance because he threw the grape to the floor and sprinted, crying, to Mary Lou, securing himself around her legs. _Yeesh._I sure hoped my own kid will like me better than that!

"So what's the story then? You're pregnant, right?" Mary Lou asked me.

"I don't know. I suppose I could be. Or maybe I just ate some bad food." I said, hoping to sound convincing.

Mary Lou raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Honey, trust me. I have experience with pregnancy. And you are one pregnant lady." She decided to give me the benefit of the doubt, anyway. "Were you feeling okay earlier today?"

"Ya..."

"Has your sense of smell seemed to be heightened?"

I thought about the smell of that juicy burger. But that could just be because it felt like a century had passed since I had even _seen_ a burger like that. I endeavored to experiment with the heightened sense of smell theory then. I lifted my nose to sniff the room and gagged. Someone had done poopy very recently. Mary Lou saw my reaction.

"See?" she pointed her finger at me. "What about cravings? Have you been craving a lot of foods like _crazy_?"

"Well, ya, but..." I was going to tell her that that was an everyday occurrence, but she interrupted me.

"I knew it!" she said, a little too ecstatic for me. "So are you going to make amends with Joe? Are you going to marry him? Oh my god! I'm going to be your maid of honor, right? I mean, of course you'll get married, right, if you're having his baby..." this time it was my turn to interrupt her.

"It's not Joe's." I said.

"Well, then who...?" A light bulb went off and she threw her hands over her mouth, covering a gasp. "Oh my god, Steph! Oh my god!" I didn't know what to do when she started hyperventilating. She fell against the wall and followed it into the kitchen. She grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, opened it with trembling hands and chugged half the bottle. She was breathing properly now, but she was fanning herself. She glanced at what remained in the bottle and, in a split-secind decision, poured it over her head. She gasped again when the cold soaked in.

"Oh my god! You're having Batman's baby!" she accused while she wiped her face dry. She noticed I was still looking perplexed after the whole dumping water over her head episode. "Sorry, that was just faster than a cold shower." I smiled. I understood. I had needed a cold shower various times after thinking about Ranger.

She took a few seconds to gather herself some more. "What now? I'm guessing since this is a surprise to you, he doesn't know about it yet."

I nodded. I thought about what Ranger's reaction would be and couldn't fathom how he would take it. He'd probably either propose marriage because it's the right thing to do, or he'd run away, never to be seen again. I couldn't see him actually doing the latter since he was well established here in Trenton, but it wasn't as if he didn't have other branches he could relocate to. And, even though the thought of marrying him sent my head reeling in a good way, a shotgun wedding wouldn't exactly be a dream come true. I wanted him to confess his undying love and spontaneously pop the question. Not feel obligated , like it was a necessity. Who knew, I might've been way wrong and jumped the gun. His reaction might be _totally_ different.

"I don't know." I sighed. "I have no idea how to tell him or what he'll do when he finds out." I lifted myself off the couch with some effort. My legs still felt like they had the consistency of a Snack Pack.

"Well, whatever happens you can call me." she hugged me around my shoulders.

"You just want to be the first to know so you'll have a good story to spread around," I playfully deplored and punched her lightly in the shoulder.

"You got me there," she shrugged. "But you're also my best friend. That hasn't changed even if we have."

"Thanks." I hugged her again before I walked through the obstacle course of her front yard and stepped into my car. I stopped at every yellow light, procrastinating my return to Rangeman. When I parked in the garage and fobbed my way up to the apartment my heart was heavy with a feeling of impending doom. I _so_ did not want to tell him this.

As it turns out, I didn't have to say anything at first. I saw Ranger standing in the kitchen, pouring himself a glass of wine and I walked towards him. I took a quick detour to the bathroom when my stomach unexpectedly felt like it had turned itself inside out. I horked into the toilet a few more times and stood to brush my teeth. I couldn't face him with vomit breath! When I rinsed toothpaste out of my mouth for the last time, I saw Ranger approach in the mirror. He handed me a hand towel to dry my mouth off.

"What's up, babe?" his eyes were soft and preoccupied. "Did you eat some bad food?"

"Could be. Or I might have one of those stomach bugs. Or, there's a teensy weensy chance that I might be pregnant." I recoiled automatically, afraid to see what emotions might flit across his face. I looked at his feet, figuring that at least that way I would know if he decided that I'd ruined his life without having to look him in the eye. Ranger was rooted to the floor. Not being used to seeing him at a loss, I decided to go ahead and chance a peek. He was looking as though he was still trying to comprehend my words. Just when I was starting to think that I had broken him, he spoke.

"You-you're pregnant?" This was big. Ranger was stuttering! I shrugged my shoulders, noncommittal.

"And what if I was? What would happen?" I asked him.

He was thoughtful for a minute before he answered. "We would elope to Vegas," he said, half-smiling.

"Wrong answer." I said.

"What did you have in mind?"

"I don't know." I tried to think again of what I expected him to do, but, still, nothing came to me.

"When did you find out about this?" he asked.

"Just today."

"And you're sure?"

"Well, Mary Lou said that I was."

"And did you take a test at Mary Lou's house?" he asked, the half smile traded in for a full-on smile.

"Well, no. But she knows about these things."

"Babe, not that I would _totally_ mind if you were pregnant, but I think you might want to consider doing a test before telling me something like this."

"Wait. You wouldn't mind?" I was holding my breath for the answer. I didn't want to melt away like butter if he had a logical explanation.

"It might not be in my life plan at the moment, and this isn't exactly the way I would choose to do things, but I could make it work. And it's not like I'm getting any younger. I'm starting to feel secure with the direction things are heading in, so I think I could even enjoy being a parent." He hesitated, "And... I love you."

Okay, I was officially melting now. "So you've changed your mind about being against having a family?" I had to double check to make sure I hadn't been hearing things.

"Babe, I'm starting to realize that you could change my mind about a lot of things."

My whole body tingled at his reply. I was speechless. He grabbed me by the hand and walked me to the door.

"Where are we going?" I inquired.

"Pharmacy. We need some answers."

Thirty minutes later I was peeing on my Answer.


	8. And The Results Are In

**I decided to post the partial Chapter 8 for now. I haven't finished it, but wanted to get at least part of it out before the weekend. I'll post the rest as Chapter 9 on Sunday or Monday. I hope you enjoy this little tease! Please review! I _love _** ** getting those review alert emails! :)**

**Again, thank you Janet Evanovich for the use of your world!**

I laid the test on a nest of tissues on the bathroom sink and anxiously watched the liquid lick up into the test screen. A single blue line appeared. I kept watching for another line to magically appear. Ranger came and stood behind me, peering at the test from over my shoulder. After two minutes there were no changes.

"Looks like a false alarm." I said, trying to act relieved. In reality I was just a smidgen disappointed. Why that should be I wasn't exactly sure. I summed it up to my biological clock ticking. I turned to Ranger and saw a couple different emotions that I couldn't put a finger on flit across his face before he finally smiled.

"I guess Vegas will have to wait." he said. I giggled nervously. He bent for a quick kiss and his phone rang.

"Speak." he commanded. He listened for a minute and said, "We're on our way." before he disconnected.

I looked at him, questioning.

"I think you should see for yourself." he said, his face a mask now. We made our way to the garage and loaded ourselves into his Porsche Cayenne.

We drove for about ten minutes in silence until he finally pulled up to a house that appeared to be abandoned. The white paint was peeling back to expose a dismal gray. The two black-gray shutters that remained attached to the broken front windows hung precariously, slanting at almost-90 degree angles. If a gust of wind shot across the front of the house it would probably knock them right off. The house would probably be creepy even during the day, but the dark night lent it a scary vibe that reminded me of half a dozen different horror movies. The street in front of the house was clogged with official vehicles. There were six cop cars along with Morelli's Jeep. An ambulance stood in wait, doors open while paramedics carted out a body in a black bag. My brow furrowed in preoccupation. Who was that person? And how is this related to me?

I had been so absorbed with the state of the house, and especially the body bag, that I hadn't thought to get out of the vehicle yet. Ranger pulled my door open and held his hand out for me to take. I latched on and kept it in mine until we reached the front door. It was ancient wood with almost no paint left on it. Ranger opened the door and ushered me inside. The first thing that hit me was the damp air and the smell of mold and rot. Then I looked around and realized the house looked even worse on the inside than it had on the outside. The only furniture was an old lounge chair that was covered in dust and dirt, the seat slashed open in various places, the stuffing hanging out of the openings. The floor was littered with old newspapers, torn articles of clothing, broken beer bottles and used needles thrown around haphazardly, along with chunks of drywall and wood. I spotted a few rotting rat carcasses amongst the debris. I suddenly wanted to hurl. The walls were mostly torn down and the ones that remained had huge holes in them.

Ranger led me over to a decrepit staircase and started to pull me up the stairs.

"Nuh-uh. I am not going up those stairs. I'll fall through them!" I protested.

"Just watch your step and stay close. It'll be fine." When I wouldn't budge, Ranger started up the stairs without me. Something that I could have sworn was just the right size for a bat swooped past my head and I panicked. I started to run up the stairs, doing my best to catch up to Ranger. I got to about the fifth step when I heard creaking and moaning and, before I could change direction, the stair under my feet gave way and I was half swallowed up. The only thing that stopped me from falling all the way into the abyss was my chest. I knew they were good for something! Even if they weren't big, they were just big enough! My legs treaded air beneath me while the top of me attempted to pull myself out.


	9. Ch 8 And the Results Are In Continued

Ranger laughed out loud and came to assess the situation. Before I knew it I was surrounded by a mob of cops that had heard the commotion from somewhere upstairs. I recognized Costanza and his partner. Then my breath caught for a second. Morelli. Most of the cops were joking and not bothering to conceal their amusement, with the exception of Morelli, who just looked pissed.

Morelli came to stand on one side of me, opposite Ranger. They made a joint effort, each of them grabbing one of my arms, and gently lifted me out of my predicament. They set me on my feet on the next stair. I looked up at them to thank them when it occurred to me that they were locked in some sort of war glare, with me in the middle.

"Why weren't you looking out for her?" Morelli said. Ranger just stared back with a look to let him know he was on thin ice. Morelli didn't get it. "I would take better care of her."

"Right. That's why she was crying over you in my arms a few nights ago," Ranger said and Morelli lost it. He dived across me and went for the tackle on Ranger. Ranger stopped his advance by grabbing his hand and yanking it up high behind his back.

"Are we going to be calm now?" Ranger asked Morelli. I could swear I saw smoke coming out of all of Morelli's orifices. He struggled to break free, kicking his feet out, trying to duck under his own arms, but Ranger was always one step ahead. Finally he accepted the inevitable and stopped struggling. When he was sure that it was safe, Ranger released his arm.

"I should charge you with assault of an officer of the law," Morelli was just a few shades lighter than a lobster. Ranger just smirked. For fear of things turning ugly again, I intervened.

"So what's this thing that I was dragged to this hell hole to see?" I asked, with more than a hint of irritation. Morelli looked at me like he had forgotten I was there, and his focus snapped back into him.

"This way," he said, grabbing my hand to lead me. Ranger followed at a slight distance. We crept up the remaining stairs and came up to a landing that looked only marginally better than the downstairs had. At least the walls were intact up here, but the wall paper was faded and blistered, flaking off in various places. He led me down a short corridor, into the last room on the left. My stomach dropped to my knees when I saw what the room contained.

There was a thread bare mattress on the floor that looked like it was urine stained and bug infested, but what had really caught my attention was the shrine that was against the wall. There were various photographs and newspaper clippings, all pertaining to myself. Some of the articles I remembered from over the years, but the photographs were new to me. There was one of me looking out my apartment window that night I was scoping my parking lot, one of me sitting with Morelli on the bench at the park, one of me eating a donut in my car outside of the bakery and one of me looking into Ranger's eyes when we were standing in front of the cascades at the Poconos. My mind reeled in circles. We were in my stalkers lair. A chill raced through me and black dots started forming in front of my eyes. I squatted and stuck my head down between my knees.

When I felt the nausea dissipate I stood back up. "Where is this guy now? How did you find this place?" I asked Morelli.

"We found it when some kids who were looking for a good time stumbled upon a dead body in here. There was a man with a clip loaded into him downstairs. We did our normal search for evidence and discovered this." I took a moment to let that soak in.

"So, who was it that was shot?" With any luck it would be my stalker.

"Raymond King. He has known gang affiliations, but we haven't been able to figure out yet if he was here on a business call, or just in the wrong place at the wrong time." My eyes flicked back over the room. Then, a thought that must have been forming somewhere in the recesses of my mind over the last few minutes, blinked on like a light bulb over my head.

"My skip was trying to steal newspaper articles from the library." I felt nauseous again. "I think my stalker is my skip."

"I had thought of that, too. And most likely he's also the murderer, but we haven't found enough incriminating evidence yet. Trust me, though, we're working on it." Morelli paused for a moment. He opened his mouth to say something, thought better of it, then thought again.

"It kills me to say this," he paused again and I could see the pain on his face. My heart ached for him. "I'm really glad that you're somewhere safe, even if it _is_ with him. Honestly, he can probably protect you better than I could right now." He looked at his shoes for a moment, kicking a crushed beer can across the room, before he looked back up at me. He kissed my cheek. "Please be careful. Losing you that way would be way more painful than losing you to another man."

I was working to keep the tears that were building around the edges of my eyes from spilling out. Why did this have to feel so horrible? I watched Morelli stroll back to his crew, shoulders slumped, and Ranger took his place by my side.

"Are you okay?" he asked, rubbing a hand over my back.

"No! I'm _not_ okay." I yelled. "There's a crazed stalker after me and he's killing people, and I have a feeling he'll get to me soon enough. Why would I be okay?" I stormed out of the room with Ranger close behind. When we got to the stairs I was suddenly lifted off my feet. I screamed like a girl.

"Put me down!"

"I'm not taking any chances this time." Ranger descended the stairs, not seeming hard pressed at all carrying me. We made our way back to his car and I sulked all the way back to Rangeman. To tell the truth, I probably should be more concerned about the psycho stalker, but I was sulking more out of guilt for hurting Morelli. Having crazed, blood thirsty stalkers was almost starting to feel normal. Pretty sad.

I knew I wasn't going to give in to the guilt now. That would only lead to more guilt than I already had. Eventually I would have to suck it up and deal with it, but for now I was going to let it stew a little. We arrived at Rangeman and I trudged behind Ranger to the elevator, still moping. When we stepped into the elevator, he grabbed my arms and wrapped them around him. He kissed me with an aggression that made me forget all about my determination to brood. Heat surged through all my parts. My hands flew to his hair where my fingers kneaded into his head and tugged his hair. His hands frantically searched every surface of my body, and when the elevator dinged open on the seventh floor, we remained attached at the lips while he fumbled to open the apartment door. As soon as the door was closed behind us, clothes were flying. By the time we reached the bed we were both naked and ready to go. He laid me on the bed and I was in full anticipation of his grand entrance. And, boy, was it grand! I felt my mind leave me and my instincts take over as my hips raised to meet him. He entered me and all of the tension left me. When the moment came, my whole body clenched and released just as his did. We collapsed in an exhausted tangle of sheets and bodies. Sleep engulfed us in minutes.

I was pulled from a great dream that replayed the events of the end of last night in new varieties. Ranger was tucking a few stray curls behind my ear. He kissed my mouth when he saw that my eyes were open. Soft at first, then metamorphosing into a heated frenzy. Part of my dreams from the night manifested and when we were done, there was more manifestation in the shower.

I knew play time was over when we sat down for breakfast. Ranger was thoughtful and serious. "I think we should do some of our own investigating about this stalker of yours," he said. "You said your skip is from Miami. Maybe we can get a better feel for him if we canvass the area he comes from." I nodded my head thoughtfully while I took a swig of coffee.

"When are we leaving?" I asked.

"I'll have one of my men make the arrangements." he lifted his phone and dialed the control room. He explained our needs, disconnected, and within ten minutes the phone rang again. He listened for a minute and disconnected again.

"Can you be ready in an hour?" he asked me.

I raised an eyebrow. One hour? Oh well. I chugged the rest of my coffee, scarfed my bagel down in three bites and went to the bedroom to put my things together.


	10. Unleashed in Miami

We loaded our bags into the back of a black SUV. Tank was going to escort us to the Newark airport so we could avoid the hassle of parking and toting our luggage half a mile to the terminal. After we loaded our bags, we loaded ourselves into the Explorer and headed out to highway 1 toward Newark. When we got to the airport we offloaded our things, waved goodbye to Tank, and an hour later we were through check-in and security, boarding the plane that would deliver us to Miami. Ranger politely offered me the window seat and I accepted. I didn't want to miss the view of Miami when we arrived!

Three hours later, my dream changed from a tranquil walk on a pristine beach to plummeting toward the ground. I woke with a start, conveniently backhanding Ranger in the face with my knee-jerk reaction to a falling dream. It turns out that the plane was descending. That would make sense. I apologized profusely to Ranger, who just smiled that little amused smile and I turned my attention to the window to see a lot of blue-green water and skyscrapers not too far in the distance. A thrill of nervous anticipation ran through me. We weren't here on vacation and the business side of it wasn't especially attractive. Hopefully we'd find what we were looking for without too much of a hitch, but then that would make things too easy. I knew we were really in for it when we crossed the threshold into the airport and were immediately rushed by a pack of Latina women, swooning over Ranger.

"Ay, papi!" one of the barely dressed women said to him as she reached out to fondle his chest. Ranger kept walking without giving the women a second glance and I couldn't help but look behind me at the disappointed women after we'd walked past. _Ya, that's right. He's with me, _Icommunicated with my chin a little higher in the air. That was until I ran right into Ranger's back.

While I was busy gloating he had stopped to talk to two burly, dark skinned men dressed in all black. I knew they must have been some of Rangers men from the Miami branch. They greeted him in Spanish and shook hands. They handed him a car key and a piece of paper and disappeared like smoke in the air.

"What's with the paper?" I asked Ranger.

"Hotel reservation," he handed me the paper with the directions to the hotel. Well this was going to be fun. We were booked into the Setai in South Beach, which happened to be one of the various five-star hotels in the area. Oh boy.

We wound our way through the airport and out to a parking area where Ranger led me to a black Suburban. "What? No Porsche?"

"We'll blend better with this." I couldn't argue with that. Blending was good. Within thirty minutes we were cruising into the hotel parking lot. We checked into a two bedroom suite on the top floor. The accommodations were plush and luxurious. The sitting area was highlighted by modern cream and tan colored upholstery. The bedrooms were to one side, right next to each other, each containing elaborately carved queen size poster beds, armoires with more hand carved designs, benches and mahogany work desks. To the other side of the sitting room was a full kitchen and cherry wood dining table that seated four.

We set our suitcases in separate rooms and rendezvoused in the sitting room.

"We're going to take a two hour break to recuperate from the flight and then we'll set out to find Gurstmyer's parents' house. I've got a contact here that says they've located his former BFF, but I don't think it's going to be pretty."

"Why's that?" I asked.

"His friend is in the nut house. His ex-wife is living in the same house she was left in the divorce. We'll try to get a hold of her, too. If all goes well we can be back on the plane to Jersey this time tomorrow."

I took the information in stride and decided I could use a shower. I went to my room and set my suitcase on the bed to grab some fresh clothes. Next thing I knew someone was stroking my hair telling me to wake up.

"What?" I wasn't aware of having fallen asleep. "I have got to stop falling asleep out of nowhere. What time is it?" I looked at the clock on the nightstand. Two hours had passed _already_?

"Wow, this bed is almost as good as yours! It just sucked me right in."

"Babe, no bed is as good as mine," Ranger said with a half smile. I punched him in the arm.

"No ego on you at all."

"I never claimed to not be aware of my qualities," he lifted me off the bed and pinned me to him. He kissed me in a show of just how good some of his qualities were. A certain quality of his was poking into me. Just when I was getting to the point of dragging him down to the bed with me, he broke the kiss and moved toward the door. He looked back to me before he walked out of the room with a smug almost-smile.

"Ten minutes to freshen up." and he closed the door behind him. I stuck my tongue out at the door and set about getting ready.

We were driving down Biscayne Bay Boulevard with the air on full blast to squelch the smothering heat. Everywhere I looked on the street were immaculate homes that I couldn't imagine belonging to anyone but the rich and famous. Three story tropical mansions towered over the street, while others sat farther back, guarded with electric gates and security shacks at the entrances. We pulled into the driveway of one that had steel enforced gates. We identified ourselves to the guard and pulled into a circular drive, fountain on one side, sprawling two story Spanish colonial on the other. We got out of the car and walked together to the front door.

"Is this really Brody's parents house?"

"One and the same."

"Wow, they must have disowned him or something to make him leave all this behind." Ranger didn't comment, possibly because at that moment, an older Hispanic woman in a pale blue maid uniform was approaching. Ranger said something in Spanish and she reciprocated, waving her arm toward a decadent sitting area off the grandiose marble columned foyer.

We took a seat and waited until a man came to greet us. He had country club prep written all over him. His hair was balding on top, slicked back around that. He was dressed in pleated khaki shorts and a baby blue polo shirt with a white sweater wrapped around his shoulders. He stood half a head taller and about fifty pounds heavier than me and his skin was tan and creased from years in the sun. He looked gentle, but confident as did the woman who joined him a moment later. She was blonde, her hair pulled back in a severe crescent, wearing a knee length pink designer dress. We all shook hands and introduced ourselves as they ushered us back to the seats.

"What kind of trouble is our son in?" Mr. Gurstmyer asked, his face troubled.

"Were here because he seems to have cultivated an obsession for Stephanie." ranger told him. Mr. Gurstmyer took the information in, looking pensive, but not surprised.

"So what can we do?" Mrs. Gurstmyer looked from Ranger to me with wide, concerned eyes.

"We'd just like to get some background on him. What were his habits? His quirks? How did he relate to others?" Ranger said.

"Well, he was always kind of a strange kid. He used to collect stuffed animals, which we thought was normal enough until we found a stash under his bed one day. There were probably close to a hundred stuffed animals in there, all of them decapitated or mutilated in some way. We started taking him to a psychiatrist then. He told us that Brody was antisocial and this was his way of releasing pent-up aggression." I was trying my best not to shudder over the memories of the little surprises he'd left for me.

"I'm guessing that he didn't leave here under the best circumstances." I said. "What happened?"

"Well," Mrs. Gurstmyer started out, and she looked like she has to prepare herself to tell us something. After a minute of straightening out nonexistent creases in her dress, she finally continued. "We found out that Brody had been seeing a girl. We were trying to set him up with a girl from our social club. They'd been seeing each other for a little over a year and we discovered he'd been seeing another girl from a poor part of town. He'd tell us he was going out to study or out with friends and he'd sneak over to her house." Her face was mostly composed, but I thought I saw a twinge of regret.

"We told him he had to choose and if he made the wrong decision he would have to make his own way. So when he chose this other girl, we kicked him out. Within a week we were regretting it and we invited him over to try to make amends. Only when he got here, Sarah, the girl from the social club showed up and he accused us of setting him up." A small tear fell down her cheek as she sniffled and sucked in a deep breath. "When he saw Sarah, he just snapped. He was throwing things at us and screaming at us. He even tried to set the house on fire! He threw my bacon grease that was left over from breakfast on the lit stove." She was sobbing now. "We had to have the whole kitchen redone. It was horrible! For a whole month we couldn't eat anything but microwave meals! And we had to heat them up in the living room!" I had originally thought she was crying from love lost between a mother and her son. Now I wasn't so sure. I stood, "Well, thanks for everything. Nice to meet you. Sorry about all that." I was pulling Ranger to his feet. I power walked to the door, pulling him behind me. We got in the SUV and I breathed a sigh of relief as we left the house behind us.

"What's next on the agenda?" I asked Ranger.

"Now we're going to visit the BFF," he said, matter-of-factly. In about thirty minutes of crazy highway traffic, we pulled onto a mundane street with mundane businesses. Most of the buildings were white or cream colored stucco in this area with a few straggly palm trees dotting the street side. The buildings weren't exactly rundown, but they weren't brand new either. They were all discreetly marked with small plaques and maybe an ad in the window to announce the business. We passed a dentist office, a tax office, a general store and hung a left into the parking lot of a building that, other than the fact that this one had three stories instead of two, looked pretty much just like the others. The plaque by the door announced, "Several Clinic." We got out and entered the building where we met with a nondescript reception area. We asked to see Barney Kuffel and within minutes a nurse was ushering us back to his room. On the way we met Clyve, who let us know with no qualms that he wasn't happy with his dessert. His silver hair sprouted off his head in every which direction, reminding me of the professor from Back to the Future. His arms swung wildly over his head, like a monkey running wild. "How am I supposed to eat it? It's poisoned. It's all poisoned! They want to get rid of us all!," his spittle sprayed my face when he spoke.

"Clyve, no one is trying to kill you. You wouldn't be worth the effort." the nurse told him. I thought I heard her mumble something like,"Fucking crazies are gonna turn _me_ into a nut." but she said it so low that I could've been wrong. She unlocked the door to a room and led us in.

"You've got some visitors. You aren't going to be any trouble are you?" the nurse asked the man I presumed was Barney. His hair was just about as crazy as Clyve's, but it was sandy brown and looked tousled from fingers running through it instead of naturally crazy. His face was flushed red and his eyes were glassy. His left foot was shackled to the foot of the bed. He shook his head "no" in answer to the nurse.

I got close to her and whispered, "Is there something we should be worried about?" I asked, pointing to his shackled foot.

"It was just a mess hall scuffle. He wanted to trade someone his sugar free pudding for their ice cream. He's diabetic so we have to watch his sugar intake." she explained to me. "The shackle is just a precaution." She showed herself out and left us alone with him.

"What can you tell us about Brody Gurstmyer?" Ranger asked him right off. A little while later we were leaving without much more information than we had come in with, other than the fact that they were both nuts. And I guess it was something that we had at least a first name for the girlfriend. Her name was Rachel, but he couldn't dredge up the last name, so that didn't narrow it down a whole lot.

Ranger was in his zone as we made our way back to the hotel. "I guess that wasn't too productive." I said.

"I don't know. I have a feeling. If I'm right, then this is bad." he said. "When I first met Rachel she had told me she had a stalker, but she just blew it off. Nothing serious. The guy would come up to her work and try to talk to her. She was working in the same neighborhood that Barney was talking about."

Panic briefly fluttered through me. "Do you really think there's a connection?" I asked.

"I don't know." Ranger dialed a number on his phone. "Rachel, I need to talk to you. Are you available right now?" He listened for a second more and disconnected. Before I knew it, we were in a modest neighborhood filled with well maintained ranch homes with big back yards, at least compared to the ones in the Burg. We pulled into the driveway of a house that was half light blue and gray brick, half light blue clapboard. There was a squat palm tree and boxy hedges lined the front of the house.


	11. Chapter 10 The Glades

The door opened before we reached it and a girl in her early teen years with dark brown hair and creamy light brown skin smiled out at us. "Dad! Stephanie!", she shouted, shooting out of the door to greet us with fierce hugs. A warmth came over me as I realized the magnitude of the fact that I'd helped Ranger save this little girl a few years ago, although she wasn't very little any more. I looked over to Ranger who was still hugging his daughter to him with a serenity that surprised even me with its depth.

"Where's your mom?" he asked her.

"Come on. She's in the kitchen." she had a hold of my hand in one of hers and Rangers in the other and she was pulling us forward. Rachel was just finishing up with the dishes when we came in. She dried her hands and reached out to shake mine.

"So this is the infamous Stephanie," she said with an ameable smile. She was about twenty pounds heavier than me, but it suited her curvy body. Her face was a cross between Marilyn Monroe and Michelle Pfeiffer. Her light brown hair was scooped back into a haphazard bun. Underneath her semi unkempt appearance I could see the younger woman that Ranger had found attractive. She had a very warm air about her that made her seem friendly and approachable.

"Julie couldn't stop talking about how great you are when she first came back! I'm so glad you two could stop by." She offered us a drink. When we accepted our waters, she asked, "So what brings you here?"

Silence ensued for a brief moment before Ranger almost inaudibly cleared his throat and spoke up. "I need to ask you some questions and I need you to try your hardest to recall." He waited a moment and Rachel nodded her head, her expression curious, a little anxious.

"Back when we met you said you had a stalker. I didn't give it much thought. You didn't sound too worried about it."

"I remember. What was his name?" she drummed her fingers on the counter and rolled her eyes back while she thought. I was on the edge of my seat, but Ranger appeared to be the picture of serenity.

"Bradley... no... Rudy... no... Brody! Yes, his name was Brody!" she sighed in relief.

"Shit!" I said and noticed the little one and Rachel looking at me quizzically. "Sorry."

Rachel looked concerned now. " What's going on?" she looked at Ranger.

He explained the whole sordid scandal to her while her face paled. "Oh my God," she said when he finished. She reached for my hand and squeezed sympathetically. I could really like this girl.

Julie strolled into the kitchen then, hands on hips topped off with a mischievous grin. She rocked back on her heels and not once did the spark disappear from her eyes while she looked from me to Ranger.

Rachel's eyebrow shot up as if to say, _what is this girl up to_?

"So, Daddy, Stephanie... Since you guys are in town I was wondering if we can do something together." Julie smiled to us.

"Of course. Did you have something in mind?" I spoke first.

"It has been a _really_long time since I've been to the Everglades. And maybe we could get some dinner afterwards?" Julie said hopefully, looking expectantly at Ranger now.

Ranger smiled his megawatt full-on smile and said, "Mija."

After we left Rachel's house we returned to the hotel where Ranger spent the majority of the night showing me how the beds there could be as good as the one in his apartment. I awoke in the morning laying on top of his warm, naked body. When I tried to smoothly slip off to jump in the shower, he grabbed me around the waist and we collapsed into a laughing heap of tangled bodies on the bed. Well, I was laughing, he was smiling the equivalent of a laugh for him.

After a romp in the bed and a stimulating shower we ordered a late breakfast from room service. He had a flox seed bagel with cream cheese and a plain omelette and I had strawberry crepes with a ham and cheese omelette. He watched me scarf my food down, vaguely shaking his head, lips quirking up in a mini-smile.

"It amazes me how two opposites can be so attracted to each other," he commented. I just shrugged and made a show of taking my last bite of crepe. "Mmmmm. Yummy sugar-soaked goodness!" I said with my mouth full. I thought I saw his eyes roll a smidgen. Then again, I could've been seeing things.

Finally, at about noon we headed out to get Julie. No sooner had we pulled up in front of the house did she come running out, practically leaping into the SUV. Her excitement was almost palpable.

We weaved our way through traffic and patiently rolled at a crawl down highway one, past the exit for the bridge that leads out to Key West and onto the road that would eventually drop is into the Everglades National Park.

We stopped in at the visitors center for maps and a quick education and headed toward our first stop. A thrill of apprehension surged through me when I saw the wild cat road sign. Knowing my luck with animals I wouldn't have been surprised to have the luck of meeting one. We parked the SUV and as I began to work my way to the closest trail, Ranger whistled at me. I turned just in time to see the can whizzing my way. I caught it, barely, and realized it was bug repellent.

"I'll pass," I said with my lip raised to show my aversion. Ranger lifted an eyebrow at me and, as if on cue, about five mosquitoes bit me at once.

"Ugh!" I slapped my head and looked at Julie, who was already covered with repellent and looking rather amused. I hesitantly sprayed my legs and arms and chucked the can back at Ranger. I was aiming for his head, but he caught it somewhere down by his knees.

Now that I was officially bug free we trotted off to a winding trail that curved into a green maze of ferns, trees and swamp grass. The trail dumped us off close to the entrance of a boardwalk that wound through brown swamp grass that was taller than me. All around me birds chortled and fruiting plants bloomed. Even if I'm not a big fan of the wide open, I have to admit that I was enthralled by the surroundings. Julie was apparently mesmerized as well. She stopped about every twenty feet to take another picture.

We were about a third of the way through the trail when we spotted a small crowd of people on a foot bridge. Julie ran ahead to see what was catching their interest while Ranger and I took our time to catch up.

"Alligators," Ranger said.

"Huh?"

"This is a good place to spot alligators. I bet there are a few of them by the bridge." As if sensing my new uneasiness he grabbed my hand and walked forward with me.

We met up with Julie who was leaning over the rail, snapping photos of four huge alligators. My heart pounded and my vision blurred with black spots dancing in my eyes. They were only about six inches away from our feet!

"Maybe sh-she shouldn't b-be so close." I stuttered with my head between my knees. Ranger barked out a laugh.

"Don't worry, Babe." Ranger tried to reassure. "As long as you don't..." Ranger's voice was drowned out by shrieking and feet pounding on the wooden planks of the footbridge. Julie was among the herd of people who were rushing away. I looked in the direction of the alligators in time to see the biggest one place a scaly, heavily clawed paw on the board walk, slowly trying to work its way up. Ranger froze and I followed suit.

"What do you have, Stephanie?" My mind went blank for a moment before it occurred to me that I had the Moon Pie I had bought earlier at the gas station in my pocket.

The alligator was progressing, now almost halfway on the boardwalk, inching closer and closer. My heart raced a million miles a minute while I fumbled in my pocket to pull the Moon Pie out. I took one last longing look at it before I tossed it down to the alligator. As I watched it swallow it whole, wrapper and all, within about two seconds, Ranger scooped me up and calmly carried me away.

I didn't stop hyperventilating until we were back in the safety of the SUV. The same second everyone was in I threw the locks, pulled my knees up to my chest in my seat and imagined myself somewhere far away. Like China, maybe. I finally sighed and looked up to see Ranger and Julie staring expectantly at me, identical expressions on their faces. That brought a smile to my face.

When it was clear that all was well in Stephanie-land, Ranger started the SUV and pulled out. We worked our way around various trails until we got to Flamingo Point. Here the swampy land merged with the sea. The setting sun cast a subtle glow onto everything it touched and I found myself entranced in the pristine picture of nature. While Julie filled her memory card with more pictures, Ranger and I stood by the car. He had me tucked into his arm, snuggled against his chest as we watched Julie, running back and forth, enthusiastically taking shots of every little detail.

A feeling crept up on me. Being here, being out with Ranger and Julie was just so comfortable. It felt as right as a peanut butter and olive sandwich. I giggled at my clever analogy. Ranger looked down at me, curious.

"I was just thinking about peanut butter and olive sandwiches," I explained, blushing. Ranger's mouth twitched in a small smile and he kissed the top of my head.

When Julie looked back over our way, Ranger motioned her over. "We'll stop at one more place I think you'll want pictures of," he told her as he opened both of our doors for us.

We followed the loop around to two triangular buildings with a pedestrian bridge built high off the ground between them. The view from that bridge would be perfect for pictures. Julie started for her door, but paused. "Maybe I'll settle for pictures from the car," she said.

A little alarmed, I asked, "Why? What's wrong?"

"I don't think I've ever seen that many bugs in one place before!" she replied, eyes wide.

I looked around and saw probably thousands of bugs, big and small, swarming about all around us. I gulped down a nervous giggle at what I was about to do. "It can't be that bad. We're wearing bug repellent, right?" I said. Julie examined me doubtfully.

"Here, give me the camera and I'll go take some pictures for you." I volunteered with a somewhat unsteady voice.

"No, Stephanie. Really, that's okay," she was looking longingly at the bridge between the buildings.

"No, really." I held my hand out for the camera. She reluctantly handed it over and I looked at Ranger before getting out of the SUV. He looked like he was enjoying some kind of private joke. So he thought I couldn't handle it, did he? Well then I had to prove him wrong. I sucked in a deep breath, straightened my shoulders and headed out into the unknown.

Like a magnet to loose change, I was instantly swarmed by biting fruit flies and some other alien bugs that weren't biting, but looked scary enough to ward off even an exterminator. After about thirty seconds of useless swatting, cursing and running, I finally ran back for the safety of the SUV. I almost stomped right back out, though, when I was met inside by two people practically rolling on the floor with their barking laughter. I turned to open the door when one of the alien bugs smacked into the window. It didn't take long for me to weigh the lesser of two evils.

"Can we go now?" I folded my arms across my chest, pursed my lips and sunk down into my chair. The laughing dulled to a big smile from Ranger and a few stray giggles from Julie. I pouted all the way back into Miami, where I perked up at the sight of restaurants. My stomach was practically screaming for food.

I shouted to myself a mocking cry of glee when Julie chose a burger joint for dinner. Take that Mister Health-nut! I was only a little disappointed when they had salads and grilled chicken. More than anything, though, I was salivating for a burger, a ginormous side of curly fries and a chocolate shake. Julie ordered the same.

We sat in a booth and chowed down, only conversing when the food was almost gone. Apparently we had all been starving. We got caught up on Julie's school and her first boyfriend. At that point I could have sworn I detected a hint of smoke leaking from Ranger's ears. Anyone else would have passed him off as a guy having a good time just by looking at him, but I knew better. The steam dissipated a little when Julie said that they've only held hands once when they went to the movies with a group of friends.

We dropped Julie off at home by ten o'clock with a promise to come back and visit soon and motored back to our hotel. "I think we've done enough investigating to go back to Trenton tomorrow," Ranger said.

The disappointment I felt surprised me, but I tried to hide it. "What about Brody's ex?"

"I think I know how he's thinking now. I don't think it's necessary."

"Oh."

Ranger's face lit. "What? You want to stay here?" he asked. I didn't respond.

"We could."

"What?" I asked, getting the drift of what he meant, but not believing it.

"I have a branch office here. Julie is here."

I let that soak in for a minute while butterflies filled my stomach to the brim. Live in Miami with Ranger? I could almost imagine us visiting the beach on the weekends with Julie, going to her soccer games. Then images of my mom, Grandma Mazur, dad, Valerie and the kids, Connie and Lula at the bonds office with no one to bring in the bad guys and get Vinnie's money back.

"Maybe we oughta just stick to visits," I said. Then it occurred to me that Ranger just pretty much volunteered a commitment to me. That scared me just as much as it excited me. Was he really serious? Or was this just some kind of test?

"Just out of curiosity," I started. "What would you have done if I'd said yes?" My hands were shaking while I waited for a reply. He opened his mouth to say something and his phone rang.

I expelled a breath I didn't know I'd been holding and waited for him to hang up. I wasn't about to let it go this easily. He disconnected the call and I tensed again when he spoke, not sure if I wanted him to answer.

"That was Hal. He booked us on a redeye back to Trenton. We need to pack up." Another pent up breath escaped me, this time more from frustration than nerves.

"When did you call Hal?" I demanded, suspicious.

"While you were in the bathroom."

I rolled my eyes and waited a moment in silence for him to continue what he was about to say before the phone rang. After almost a full minute passed without a word, I got off the couch and stalked into my room. I threw my suitcase on the bed and shoved my things haphazardly into it. I knew I was being childish, but why should I have to ask him again? He didn't want to give me an answer? Fine!


	12. Just Like A Snake

The flight home was uneventful. Neither of us spoke if it wasn't necessary and we were killing each other with politeness. We fished our luggage out of baggage claim and he said a simple, "No," in answer to my request to be dropped at my apartment. No to my parents' house, no to the office.

"What's with you? You aren't even talking to me, but I can't go see anyone who might help take my mind off things?" I shouted at him once we were in the car Tank had left for us at the airport.

The corners of Ranger's mouth twitched. "I can think of a few things that would ease your mind," he said, and heat surged through me at the thought of how he would accomplish that. I forced the images out of my mind. I wasn't going to forgive him so easily. We rode in silence the rest of the way to Rangeman.

As soon as we entered the garage Hal rushed out of the elevator, running like there might be a madman with a hatchet behind him. I looked around the garage, just in case, and saw that the coast was clear. I turned my attention back to Hal. His face was flushed and his body was tensed. Whatever this was wasn't going to be good. He ran to Ranger, leaning into his ear, and mumbled something unintelligible from my side of the car. Rangers eyebrows shot up in concern, maybe anger. Hard to say.

"Go up to the apartment. I have something to tend to," he told me.

I gave him my best dirty look and shot him a mock salute before turning on my heels and huffing away. I entered the elevator and fobbed my way up to the seventh floor. My stomach felt uneasy about what might be taking place downstairs. Probably it was nothing. My nerves had to be working overtime after today's events.

I undressed and stepped under the luxurious shower. I lathered on the Bulgari Green shower gel, inhaling the blissful scent slowly. By the time I had dressed in my pajamas Ranger was standing in the bedroom doorway.

"I have something I want you to see." His face betrayed no emotion, no hint as to what it might be.

"Can't this wait? I'm tired," I folded the blankets back from the mattress, getting ready to hop in.

"This will only take a minute. I really think you should see this." I heaved a disgruntled sigh and gave in, following him out to the living room. He popped a silver disc into the DVD player and a magnified Lucy appeared on the screen. Instantly my curiosity piqued.

"Do you recognize her surroundings?" Ranger asked me.

"Ya. That's the break room, right?" Ranger nodded and looked back up to the flat screen. He stood arms crossed, right hand rubbing his chin. On the screen Lucy extracted a small silver packet, looked around nervously and, when apparently satisfied that no one was looking, sprinkled the contents of the packet, a fine powder, onto the burger in front of her. My curiosity quickly turned to shock and rage when it dawned on me. The burger she had given me! She tried to poison me! No wonder I horked my guts up that day!

I slowly turned my wide eyes to Ranger, who was examining my face for signs of understanding.

"That bitch! That bitch tried to poison me!" I yelled. After a moment of silence, Ranger finally spoke.

"I've already called her and told her she needs to bring her badge and weapons to me tomorrow morning." he said.

That's it? That was all he was going to do? After the good for nothing skank tried to kill me? Apparently my feelings about that transferred pretty bluntly to my face.

"Hal already checked. The product she sprinkled on your burger is a parlor trick that's meant to make you... flatulent." His lips quirked at the edge in a half smile. "Sometimes vomiting is a side effect instead." My face was turning red from the knowledge that he was thinking about my flatulence. So Lucy just meant to embarrass and disgrace me, then. No doubt hoping that my, um, bodily functions, would be a turn off to Ranger at the worst moment. I was about to tell him about my theory when my phone rudely interrupted.

"'Lo?" I said. All I could hear was the creepy breathing on the other end. A tingle ran through my body as the hairs on my arms stood up on end.

"Who is this?" I asked, though I was mostly positive I already knew. A disturbing man-giggle replaced the deep breathing.

"Would you like me to tell you?" More giggling and deep breathing. "Make sure you've said your goodbyes to your man, Stephanie. This time tomorrow you'll be mine," and the phone went dead. Nausea and repulsion rolled through me and I had to squat, face dipping toward the floor to stay conscious.

Ranger crouched beside me, placing a hand on mine. "Tell me everything." His voice was both angry and sympathetic. I closed my eyes and recounted every detail. I looked up when I was done and caught what was supposed to be a hidden moment. He ran his fingers forcefully through his hair and his expression was formidably enraged. When he noticed that I was looking, he moved to look out the window, allowing him to recuperate his hardened image. The recent drama was almost forgotten in my amazement about catching a glimpse of Ranger for Real. It was like seeing a Sasquatch firsthand!

Without turning back to me he made his way to the sideboard by the front door and grabbed a set of keys from the silver tray, "Don't leave my apartment."

My defenses jumped into action, but I did my best to tamp it down. There was another pressing issue to worry about first.

"What about you? He said 'my man'. He knows I'm staying with you."

Ranger half smiled again. "I'll be fine, Babe." Damn machismo. I didn't know what I'd do if I really lost him in that permanent of a way. He walked out the door and I collapsed into a bundle of raw nerves on the couch. I was in no state for being alone. As I ran through the mental list of people I could sneak out to see, the door opened back up. My breath caught and my heart stuttered in my chest. The world stood still for a moment while I waited to see who walked through the door.

"I started thinking that you would probably find some way to escape if I wasn't around to keep you company," Ranger said and sat beside me on the couch and pulled me into his lap. We sat in silence until I finally must have fallen asleep. When I awoke we were in the bed, Ranger's heavy arm wrapped all the way around my waist. And, the biggest mystery, I was naked. Hmmm. I was pretty sure I would have remembered that. I maneuvered myself to turn around and face him and all I could think of was how I could tell him that I love him. I finally knew it to be true. No more questions remained in my mind. My heart fluttered at the thought of saying the words. I thought about giving him a pleasant awakening and confessing after, but his phone beat me to it. The awakening part, I mean.

He turned lazily to the night stand and grabbed his phone without even fumbling. He flipped it open and listened, hanging up after just a moment without a word. He climbed out of the bed and I searched his silky hard body as he dressed himself. I did wonder what was going on, but it wasn't too incredibly unusual for some work related event to interfere with his sleep.

"There's a situation," he said simply as if to explain everything. I looked at him with arched eyebrows. I could have sworn I heard a sigh of resignation. He looked at me with serious intent. "There's been a security breach downstairs. Please stay here." His eyes were actually pleading. This must be serious. Brody?

Ranger marched out of the bedroom and out the front door. After a stunned moment of paralyzing fear, I got a grip. There was no way I was going to let him get himself killed without at least putting up a fight.


	13. All Is Not Well

I fumbled around for the first clothes I could find and shoved my feet into my fuzzy blue house shoes that I'd had brought over from my apartment a while back. My hair probably looked like the equivalent of a birds nest, but I had to weigh my priorities and, right now, my hair was pretty far down on that list.

I dug through my purse and came out with my stun gun, which I tucked into the back of my pants and covered with Ranger's black tee. It was about three times bigger than my size so it concealed the lump pretty well. I grabbed a random set of keys from the tray before I slid out the door, just in case we needed to make a quick getaway. Or in case I needed something to gouge some eyes out with.

I figured the action would probably be taking place on the fifth floor, where most business is conducted. The elevator would probably be too conspicuous, so I took it to the sixth floor and hesitated for a moment before stepping out. Just in case. When the coast appeared to be clear, I slid out and made my way to the stairwell. After opening the door and listening for a bit, I decided they were safe enough, so down the stairs I went.

I riveted to the spot when a shwish-shwish sound ricocheted off the stairwell walls. I stopped in my tracks, heart in throat, and scanned the area slowly for intruders. I backed up to the wall and heard the sound again. This time I stopped my heart from leaping into my throat by way of enlightenment. It was my footwear. I decided to let my feet go au natural and slipped them off, abandoning them halfway down the stairs. I crept down the rest of the steps and over to the stairwell door along the wall, crouching down to make myself less visible. I lifted my head to peek out the window in the door, but the door opened up to a corridor. The hallway walls were blocking my view. I strained my eyes to peer as far as I could, but couldn't see if the action was happening here.

I drew in a deep breath to steady my quivering nerves, quietly turned the handle on the door, and cautiously pushed it open just enough to slip out. Hopefully unseen. I led the door gently back to its closed position, slid over to the opposite wall, flattening myself against it, and held my breath while I listened. At first I heard nothing but the rush of blood through my ears and a hammering heartbeat. After a moment, though, barely audible voices carried over to me. Two men. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but suspected that knowledge would be crucial.

I maneuvered down the hallway by way of the wall, inching my way toward the voices. The hallway got darker as I moved down it. I examined the lighting and saw that a light had been shot out. My stomach tightened as I wondered about all of the possible implications of that.

_Don't panic_, I thought to myself, _maybe it was planned. Maybe it's war tactics_. I concentrated on making my breathing even again as I continued the small trek that seemed like one of the longest in my life. Unfortunately, my concentration on that left me out of focus on other critical issues. The hallway was now at its darkest point, but I kept going. Then my hand, still feeling its way down the wall, touched something warm and covered with cotton fabric. As realization hit, I sucked in a deep breath to scream, but a hand clamped over my mouth from behind me before I could really let loose.

I lifted a foot, preparing to catch the culprit in his precious jewels when he whispered in my ear, "Don't make a sound. You'll ruin the whole thing."

My tense body slackened in relief when I recognized Tank's voice. Satisfied that I would be calm, he let go of my mouth and spun me around to face him. He put a finger to his lips to remind me to stay quiet and leaned closer to my ear.

"He doesn't know I'm here. This will work beautifully." His pumped-up smile made me shiver. I wasn't sure if he meant Ranger didn't know he was there, or if the bad guy didn't know. When I thought about asking, I stopped short. I tuned into Ranger's voice.

"What do you think you're going to accomplish like this?"

"Oh, I know what it will accomplish. You'll tell me where you're hiding Stephanie or Lucy's brains will get splattered all over your neat little office."

By this time I had managed to peek around the corner to assess the situation a little better. Tank pulled me back out of view, but not before my suspicions had been confirmed about the invader. Brody was standing about five feet in front of us, his back half facing us. He held Lucy in the crook of his left elbow, a pistol in his right hand, being held rigidly to her head. Ranger didn't bother to respond. From what I had seen of his stance, he was playing it cool, as usual. Calling Brody's bluff.

Thoughts flit through my head. I had to do something, but what? Should I wait until his back was completely turned and rush him from behind? No, something had to be done now. I couldn't take a chance that I would get there just a moment too late.

Before Tank could guess at what I planned to do, I scurried out to face my stalker. I couldn't risk Ranger being killed because of me. My knees wanted to give out, but I made myself put my chin in the air and stand straight. I watched Brody's expression change from surprise to utter delight. His creepy man giggle pervaded the air. He hooted in triumph, throwing Lucy roughly to the floor in front of Ranger.

He made haste to seize his golden opportunity and scooped me by the neck into the crook of his elbow, replacing Lucy with me as hostage. He swung his pistol in a wide arc before pointing it to my head.

"HA!" he bellowed. His face bore a sarcastic sympathy. "Aw, isn't that cute? Your little lover girl doesn't want you to die." His harsh laughter brought back the reality of my new circumstances and I started to struggle. He successfully blocked most of my attempts of a blow to his soldier, but I wasn't about to give up.

"Unfortunately, this changes nothing." Brody said, suddenly scary serious. He turned his arm and pointed the pistol at Ranger, apparently unaffected by my struggling. By now, Lucy had regained her footing and was standing next to Ranger.

"But you said he was mine!" she yelled at Brody. "You can't kill him, ass hole. He's mine now!" Her tantrum reminded me of a five year old who didn't get her way. Disgust coursed through me as I realized that she must have been plotting with him this whole time. She probably knew everything and who knows what she did to make herself indispensible to Brody. Until now, that is.

"Sure, you can have him. You guys can walk the afterlife together." When Lucy's face crumpled in understanding and betrayal, Brody went on. "Aw, come one. Surely you knew this would happen. You know way too much. How could I let you live when you know all of my sources and all of my information? No, that would just be too convenient for you to share all the information with your little friend." Lucy sobbed, wrenching desperate sobs that shook her whole body. She knew there was no way out of it. And, with one shot, he nailed Lucy in the middle of her forehead. Her wet eyes looked up, trying to see the puncture that blood was now seeping over her face from. Within seconds her eyes grew vacant and she slumped to the floor.

My struggling stopped as shock set in. He just killed someone! He's not bluffing! When it clicked with me that he would kill Ranger without a second thought, I struggled more, clawing at his arm, finally biting it for all I was worth. He screeched and let me go flying to the ground. I scrambled to get up and get away, but he was faster. He subdued me with a pistol butt to the head. Consciousness faded out and the last moments I remember seeing were filled with Brody turning his gun back to Ranger, shots being fired. No idea who was getting who. Somewhere in the mist of my brain I registered Tank from the corner of my eye. My vision grew heavy and hazy. Two more seconds and everything was silent and black.


End file.
